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
doth not swerve from the square of Sacred Canons from the consent of great Divines and Canonists from the practice of most Catholick Nations and amongst the rest of England before the Schism without controulment of the Clergy nay we are undoubtedly possessed the Law of Nature which is above all Canons doth approve and command it so strictly as we cannot otherwise answer the Trust reposed in us when by our negligence herein the Lives and Fortunes of the Confederate Catholicks would be exposed to most inevitable and evident danger Given at Kilkenny Castle the Third day of June 1648. and in the Four and twentieth year of the Reign of our Sovereign Lord CHARLES by the Grace of God King of Great Britain France and Ireland Mountgarret Athunry Donboyne Lucas Dillon Rob Linch Rich Barnewall Rich Everard Rich Bellings Patr Gough John Walsh Gerrald Fennell Patrick Brian Robert Deuereax George Commin GOD SAVE THE KING 6. That next Winter following the General Assembly of all the Three Estates of the Confederates being conven'd from all parts of the Kingdom at Kilkenny in order to conclude the Second Peace or it called the Peace of 1648. with His Majesties Lord Lieutenant and great Commissioner the then Marquess now Duke of Ormond as they did indeed before that year ended conclude it they took into their special care to second the foresaid publick Declaration of the Supreme Council and that by another as publick of their own fix'd up publickly to the great Gate as the manner was of their Assembly-house and to several other places in Town under the hand of their Speaker Sir Richard Blake In which Assembly Declaration and Act the Estates amongst other things took notice first of the designs of the rebellious Clergymen especially Regulars who even contrary to the Oath of Association took part with the Nuncio Owen O Neill and others proscrib'd by publick and lawful Authority to hold meetings and celebrate even Provincial Chapters in the woody mountainous boggy or other unaccessible places possess'd by Owen O Neill and that too partly nay principally of purpose to proceed against those other good and loyal Churchmen who for His Majesties service obeyed the Supreme Authority of the Confederates yea to displace and deprive them of their respective local Superiourships Guardianships or other offices and to name Malignants in their stead And therefore in the next place they strictly commanded all such rebellious Out-lawed Ecclesiasticks of what dignity or title or office soever at their utmost peril not to hold any kind of Meeting or Chapter upon any account whatsoever And Thirdly also they no less strictly enjoin'd all and every the loyal Ecclesiasticks and on their Allegiance to the King and likewise at their utmost peril commanded them not to assemble with nor receive or obey any Summons Orders Precepts Sentences Institutions Destitutions Statutes c. of or from all or any of the adverse party but to continue their respective offices and other matters as formerly until His Holiness or other general Superiours beyond Seas should upon or after full information send persons duly qualified and empower'd to rectifie all abuses and punish in their way according to their demerits those fire-brands of rebellion and civil War 7. That accordingly all Ecclesiasticks adhering to and obeying the said Supreme Authority behaved themselves but more especially those of the Franciscan Order being they were above others concern'd forasmuch as Father Thomas Makiernan their Minister Provincial and his Diffinitory all and every of them declared Enemies to and by the said Supreme Authority had within Owen O Neill's Quarters presumed to hold a Chapter or Congregation intermedia as they call it and therein authoritatively as much as in them lay displaced all the loyal Guardians throughout the whole Province and order'd Malignants to succeed them 8. That by such means used and care taken that year 1648. the loyal Ecclesiasticks of Ireland then came to be and continue still so numerous until they got the upper hand in all parts even amongst the common people and quite run down their Adversaries and so for what belongâ—d to them enabled the very same foresaid Supreme Council and General Assembly to reduce that Irish Nation once more unto their due obedience to His Majesty by treating and concluding as they did within a few Months after the second Peace or that of 1648. with His Majesties foresaid great Commissioner 9. That after this Peace concluded and the Government thereby placed in and executed by the said Commissioner the Duke of Ormond as under the King Lord Lieutenant those same loyal Ecclesiasticks having in all respects the same countenance and protection from his Excellency which was before given them by the Confederate Council and Assembly witness in particular among an hundred other examples which I could alledge Father Redmund Caron come and sent from Flanders as upon the Letters and Complaints of the foresaid Council and Assembly delegated by the Highest power general then of the Franciscan Order the most Reverend Peter Marchant of purpose to reform the abuses of his Order in Ireland and either to reduce or depose the rebellious Provincial and Diffinitory they I mean the above loyal Ecclesiasticks encreased daily more and more both in number strength and credit until the two Sieges of Londonderry and Dublin had been raised and the fate of Rathmines happen'd and Cromwel with a great Army landed and the strong Sea-towns of Munster betrayed and Droghedagh and Wexford stormed and Rosse taken and the repulse at Carrig and the treachery at Waterford and Owen O Neill with his Forces being rejected by the Parliament of England condition'd but too late with and submitted to the Lord Lieutenant and Owen O Neil dying at the very time the Bishop of Clogher Ewer mâ—â— Mahoâ— made General of the same Northern Army Then it was that the Nuntio party of the Ecclesiasticks being on the late submission mix'd with the Royalists reassum'd new courage and gain'd ground by sowing new divisions and playing over again their former Game Then that after the Appeal to Innocent the Tenth sent to and prosecuted at Rome by Father John Roe Provincial of the Irish Carmelites the same Nuntio partty first began to speak big and Triumph also in that Court the said Father Roe without any satisfaction or positive answer being forced to leave off his prosecution and depart if not steal away privily viz. when the news of Rathmineâ— and the consequences thereof had been with so much gladness and excess of joy come to and proclaimed in Rome Then it was that all means and devices had been ordered there to make use of the present occasion of the Royals Powers declining in Ireland for either the reduction or destruction of the Anti-Nuntiotist Irish Ecclesiasticks as being the time expected when these could have but little or no support from a tottering Government a Government undermin'd hourly by its own seeming friends and therefore even professed Subjects and at the same
must run under the notion of unlawful and consequently besides other inconveniencies render our persons subject to the penalties of the Law I doubt not but that when ye undertake to convoke your Brethren to meet ye are very sure of my Lord Dukes connivence But what if Phanaticks Souldiers or some malignant person or persons taking no notice thereof should even to displease my Lord Lieutenant himself molest honest People Might not this happen very well when nothing appeareth openly to warrant our meeting That it may is very clear witness what has been done to the poor Franciscans in Dublin on or about Christmas anno 1663. notwithstanding their pretended connivence which to this day that I could ever learn availed not one F. Tully apprehended in that occasion And when people had not this president before their eyes such as having been Prisoners some time are now Bailed upon Bonds to appear at a certain day after they are summoned will be very shie to concur to a meeting wherein they may expose not only themselves to forfeiture of their Bonds but also such as are engaged for them to danger of great losses Further I am satisfied That if the distractions of this War newly declared betwixt us and France had occurr'd at the time of your meeting in November ye would not without my Lord Lieutenants special permission in scriptis offer to expose the chief of our poor Clergy to the mercy of many that have but little or no affection for our wayes For though our intentions were never so good the ill affected might as often they have done it with less ground misconstrue them and plead that our meeting was to brew mischief and to contrive a way to draw in the French to assert and support Popery in this Land And why should not they suspect some sinister dealings when they see People assemble without Authority and in this conjuncture of a Settlement wherein most of our Natives have but little of satisfaction whether right or wrong I offer these Reasons to your Lordships and my other worthy Friends considerations praying That ye be pleased to hammer upon them very seriously before ye persuade people to that which is conceived danger Things done without mask and above board are more acceptable and less subject to Calumny Let us have my Lord Lieutenants safe conduct and I am sure all will concur with hearts and hands to pleasure His Majesty and his Grace too or any other that may doubt of our Loyalty His Grace cannot deny this if he wisheth our meeting and less notice will be taken of his granting thereof now for a good end than may be of his interposing his Authority for us after in case of any trouble or disturbance such as we may not but fear My Lord I plead not for my own self herein I onely speak what I judge to be according to reason and discretion It is well known I may not hazard my self in that meeting as that am scarce able to peep out of my Chamber much less to undergo so long a Journey as hence to Dublin Moreover when more active and stronger my propension to Loyalty was so well known that I hope my Lord Duke will not suspect my integrity in my old Age. I ever loved to live in peace and so still contributed my best endeavours to forward it Now there is nothing under Heaven that in my judgment may stand with a safe Conscience but I shall be very apt to embrace to give my King and His Lieutenant all becoming satisfaction I will expect your answer to the premises and timely notice whether the above mentioned pass or safe conduct will be granted In the mean time wishing the Holy Ghost in your counsels and consultations I beg a share in your holy Prayers and Sacrifices for My Lord Your Lordships most humble Servant Jo Archiepiscopus Tuamon 1 March 1665. POSTSCRIPT Inasmuch as of all likelihood besides a Remonstrance of our Loyalty other matters will be debated in the above meeting of ours if it taketh effect I shall desire that your Lordship be pleased to let me have the Heads of all whereby people that have not means to stay long in Dublin may have time to digest leasurely their resolution against that occasion and so hasten I conceive this necessary and to be sent to each of those that are expected in that meeting This Letter should have been in your hand ere now but it chanced to have had a lett by the way that occasioned its return to my self again Now I send it by the Post 13 March 1665. As soon as this Answer came to Ardagh's hands his Lordship was pleased both to shew and leave it with me having taken with himself along and enclosed in his own Reply to the Archbishop a fair Copy of a Petition which to satisfie such pretended Scruples I drew to be Signed by the Archbishop himself and the four other Prelates who had subscribed the Indiction The tenour of that Petition was as followeth To his Grace the Duke of ORMOND Lord Lieutenant General and general Governour of IRELAND The humble Petition of John Burk Archbishop of Tuam Patrick Plunket Bishop of Ardagh Patrick Daly Vicar General of Ardmagh James Dempsie Vicar Apostolick of Dublin and Capitulary of Kildare and of Oliver Dese Vicar General of Meath in their own behalf and that also of all other Bishops Vicars General and Provincial Superiours of regular Orders of the Roman Communion in Ireland HVmbly sheweth That your Petitioners finding the Professors of their Religion in this Kingdom and especially the Clergy to lie always under many jealousies and suspitions of disloyal intentions towards His Majesty or State Government and Peace of this Kingdom by reason partly of their supposed or known actings either of all or some of them in the late unhappy War and partly of some Tenets of Religion relating to the Government or power of Government which they are supposed likewise by some to hold and by reason also of their so long demurring these three or four last years upon a Concurrence by subscription to a Remonstrance of Loyaltie subscribed and presented at London to the King and your Grace by the Catholick Bishop of Dromore and some other Divines and by the Nobility and Gentry of their Nation and Religion then at London as after by some others also of the said Irish Roman Catholick Clergy Nobility and Gentry at Dublin and finally by reason of divers though in your Petitioners judgment very groundless reports of several Plots contrived or designed by them since His Majestie 's happy Restauration but very particularly at present by occasion of the Forraign War declared by the French King against our Gracious Soveraign and his Dominions as withal by occasion of this last report though extreamly vain of a Plot amongst the said Irish Catholicks against the English as pretended to have been thought to be put in execution the last St. Patricks day in this very month And
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
Procurator and his maintaining or asserting The Diffusive Church onely to be Infallible proved false 69 c. Their fourth Allegation in the same manner proved false 76. Their other impertinent or unconcluding Allegations considered but more especially at large their example or precedent of Mattathias and the Maccabees against Antiochus 79 c. Their Latin Postscript considered 83. Three several Formularies of a profession of Allegiance made by them and a fourth offered 85 86 87. The Provincial and Diffinitory of the Franciscans dealt with at Multifernan by the Procurator to Sign the Remonstrance delay and why 69 90. They before with some others disclaimed the Remonstrance by a Publick Instrument and sent an Agent to Flanders to get it condemn'd 91. Nevertheless Father Antony O Docharty Provincial of the Franciscans gives privately under his hand to the Procurator a Paper of Permission for those of his Order to subscribe the Remonstrance and approves it himself in his Letter to the Duke of Ormond Lord Lieutenant 93. And yet he carried not himself in that matter of the Remonstrance or approbation of it either before or after in any wise candidly or sincerely much less constantly ib. Nobility and Gentry at Dublin Sign the Remonstrance and write to all the Counties of Ireland to invite them to a concurrence 95 96. The Lord Lieutenant countermands the sending about any of the many Duplicats of this Circular Letter and why 97. Gentry of the County of Wexford and Citizens of that Town Sign the Remonstrance Pag. 98 c. Censure and Condemnation of the Remonstrance by the Faculty of Divines at Louain 102. Letter of Father James de Riddere a Dutch-man and Commissary General over the Franciscan Order in the Provinces as well of the Low-Countries and some of those of Upper Germany as those of England Ireland Scotland Denmark to Father Redmund Caron Citing him and the rest of the Irish Franciscan Subscribers of the Remonstrance to appear at Rome or Bruxels 104. Father Caron's brief Reply from London 105. Father Walsh the Procurator's more diffuse Reply expostulating the case with the said Commissary at large out of the Canons and Reason 106. from thence to 115. The said Commissary General 's brief Answer to the Procurator 115. Act of a National Congregation of Forreign Franciscans but wherein nevertheless were present Representatives for the Franciscan Provinces of England and Ireland against the Irish Franciscan Subscribers of the Remonstrance and the same Act kept private 116. The four grounds of the Louain Censure 117. Answer to the first of them 118. To the second 119. To the third 124. To the fourth 143. and from thence to 436. Seal of Confession to a Priest in what cases and how far binding treated of at large from 124 to 142. Ecclesiastical Immunity or the Exemption of Ecclesiasticks from the Coercive Lawful and Christian Authority of the Supreme Civil Magistrate not to be proved either by Divine Law Positive 148. Or from the Divine Law Natural i. e. Law of Nature 163. Or from the Civil Law 182. Or from the Canon Law 195. That 't is in the power either of Pope or Church to grant such Exemption not probable by Reason 217. No such Exemption de facto made by any Pope 230. On the contrary That the Clergy is not exempted from the very coercive power of the Supreme Temporal even Lay-Magistrate proved first by Theological Arguments 243. Next by Holy Scripture 272. Then by the interpretation or sense of the same Holy Scripture as delivered by the Holy Fathers even Popes themselves in their Commentaries 300. In the fourth place by the practice as well of Holy Popes as of other Holy Fathers 314. In the fifth by the practice consequently of Christian Princes 345. Lastly by the very Canons even Papal of the Catholick Church 364. Remaining Objections answerâ—d 374. The Doctrine of Marsilius de Padua and Joannes de Janduno examined at large and compared c. 375. and from thence to 399 though this latter page be Printed falsely and 379 put instead of 399. The great Argument for the Exemption of Ecclesiastical persons c. derived from St. Thomas of Canterbury â—s opposition to King Henry II and from his Martyrdom c. treated at large from 399 to 436. The sixteen Customs or Laws opposed by that Holy man 407 408 409. The ancient municipal Laws of England concerning the punishment of Church-men for Murder Felony c viz. the Laws of the Saxon Danish and Norman Kings before Henry II or those of Inas Alured Ethelred Edgar Edmund Guthrun Ethelstan Canutus S. Edward William the Conqueror Henry I and King Stephen 414 415 416 417. Four several Answers to the foresaid grand Argument The First of them 418. Second 424. Third 430. Fourth Pag. 431. The Author relies or onely or principally on the two first Answers 431. St. Thomas of Canterbury why justly esteemed a Martyr 418 and from thence to 431. The heighth and amplitude of Exemption for Clerks i. e. Church-men in England formerly And it no less complain'd of 436. Contemporary Authors of good Repute condemn St. Thomas of Canterbury 433 434. St. Thomas of Canterbury vindicated from Treason 437. and from thence to 462. The LXXVII Section out of all the former Thirteen or Fourteen Sections upon or concerning Ecclesiastical Immunity infers the final conclusion of all and consequently and very particularly justifies the Irish Remonstrance of the year 1661 against the Louain Censure by four several Arguments or Syllogisms 463 and from thence to 487. Return to the relation of pure matter of Fact 488. Paper given by Gerrot Moor Esq to the Lord Lieutenant 489. A second Paper given by Patrick Daly Vicar-General of Ardmagh 490. A third Paper given by James Dempsy Vicar-Apostolical of Dublin and Capitulary of Kildare 492. Five Reasons why the Anti-remonstrants grew very insolent about June 1644. 493. A Proclamation issued by the Lord Deputy together with another accident allayes their Insolence 494. Two Letters the one from the Provincial the other from the Diffinitory of the Franciscans sitting at Multifernan to the Procurator 498. Their Letter to the Belgick Commissary General 499. The Procurator's Letter to the said Commissary 500. Cardinal Francis Barberin's Letter and Memorial therein inclosed to the said Commissary against the Procurator Father Caron and rest of the Franciscan Remonstrants with the same Commissaries Answer to the Cardinal 505 506. That Commissaries Letter answering Sir Patrick O Moledy 509. Internuncio de Vecchiis Conference with and verbal Message by Father Gearnon to Caron and Walsh 510. The Procurator's Conference at London with the said Belgick Apostolical Internuncius Hieronymus de Vecchiis 511. The same Internuncio 's Letter to Father Matthew Duff alias Lyons 513. His Letter also to Father Bonaventure O Bruodin 515. Observations on the Letters of de Vecchiis and other Roman-Ministers 516. The three Negative Articles of England with the Roman-Catholick Subscribers both Lay-men and Church-men 522 523. Doctor
day of the Congregation the Fathers being assembled to hear from their Commissioners Kilfinuragh and Ardagh an account of their last Address on Saturday night to the Lord Lieutenant the Procurator gives them His Grace's positive Commands to dissolve that morning Ardagh on the other side endeavours to make them believe I know not what and misrepresents His Grace's words He is by the Procurator immediately and publickly to his face opposed in his relation 704. That matter being over the Primat seconded by Father Oliver Deesse Vicar-General of Meath and others stands up and in behalf of the House offers the second time to the Procurator Two thousand pounds sterl to bear his Charges for the next three years to come And when the Procurator had on such account refused to receive any money from them the Primat with the rest desires him to receive the said Sum at least for his re-imbursement of what he had already expended in their service the five years past He offers besides all kind of commendatory Letters from the Congregation to the Court of Rome in behalf of the said Procurator All which the Procurator thanking them first refuses and why 705. Three several matters of importance moved then by the Procurator to the Congregation 706. On the First viz. concerning not only Publick Prayers for both the Spiritual and Temporal prosperity of the King but moreover a due observance amongst them and their respective Flocks the Roman-Catholick People of the Publick dayes of Humiliation or Fasts and Prayers which the King or His subordinate chief Governours of Ireland should thenceforth command all His Subjects to observe the Procurator discourses at large 706 707 708 709. On the Second viz. concerning the famed wonder-working Priest Father James Fienachty he discourses far more largely in the Account given by him then of the said Father Fienachty to the Congregation 710. and from thence to 735. On the third viz. concerning two Books written by two Irish Churchmen the one a Jesuit the other a Cappuccin against the Rights of the Crown of England in or to Ireland he discourses 736. and from thence to 742. What the Fathers determined on the first of those three matters 709. What on the second 739. What on the third and last of them 741. The Secretary of the Congregation his Letter to the Procurator from Rosse of the 7th of July viz. a Fortnight after the Congregation had been dissolved 742. The Congregation dissolved ib. Lord Lieutenant's Declaration of the experience he had for twenty years of the Roman-Catholick Irish Prelates made to Ronan Magin Vicar-General of Dromore and to the Procurator the very same morning the Congregation dissolved 743. His Grace commands the Procurator to tell the Bishops of Ardagh and Kilfinuragh He would speak to them before they departed the Town and why 744. Kilfinuragh removes his Lodging flies out of Town and privily out of the whole Kingdom though he might have stayed without any hazard there having been no harm intended to him 744 747 748. The Lord Lieutenant understanding that Kilfinuragh could not be found sent William Sommers to leave an Order at the Lodgings both of the Primat and Ardagh in case he could meet neither at home enjoining them not to part out of Town without His Grace's leave 744. Within a few dayes more He sends the Procurator to tell the Primat of some dangerous Intelligence come against him from beyond Sea Soon after the said Primat is put under a Guard but within a very little time more according to his own election sent safely away through England from Dover to Callice in France 746. Ardagh freed from all Confinement ib. Both he and all the rest of the Members of the Congregation even after 't was ended and however they carried themselves in it were free to depart whithersoever they pleased and live where they would in Ireland onely the Primat excepted and he also excepted onely because of the positive information come against him out of Spain from the English Ambassador there Pag. 747 749. The Procurator's judgment of the said National Congregation leading Members thereof and of their several interests and ends 749 750 751. How presently after that National Congregation had dissolved the Doctrine of Allegiance in those Fifteen several Propositions or Paragraphs which you find in this Book immediately after the end of the Fourth Treatise pag. 80 81 82 83. was debated for a Month by a number of Divines convening daily at Dublin and in the same place where the foresaid National Congregation sate 752 753 754 755. The Names of the Divines that debated so the said Fourteen Propositions 755. Animadversions on and Answers to two passages of a late Letter viz. of the 6th of Octob. 1669. from the Bishop of Ferns at Gaunt to the Procurator at London The former passage this Father Peter Walsh is said to have used fraud and force in the Congregation of the Clergy at Dublin anno 1666 and that he kept an Anti-Congregation of his own Faction I saw a Relation sent over of that I saw also severe Lines of a great Cardinal to that purpose The latter this viz. It was ill taken by all That after Cardinal Franciscus Barberinus 's Letter in His Holinesse's Name to the Clergy he viz. Father Peter Walsh no way lowr'd his Sail but remained obstinate and insolent I likewise saw a great mans Letter I mean a Roman termed him and Caron Apostates 756 757 758 759 760 761. The Death-bed Declaration of the said Reverend Learned and Pious Father Redmund Caron ib. Another likewise but of the Right Reverend Father in God that excellent man Judicious Prelate and Loyal Subject Thomas Desse Lord Bishop of Meath who dyed at Galway in the year 1651. 670. A Paper of Animadversions on the insignificant Remonstrance of the foresaid National Congregation written by the Right Honourable the Earl of Anglesey now Lord Privy Seal and by himself given to the Lord Lieutenant 762. The Lord Lieutenant's commands on that occasion to the Procurator These and some remembrances also of other matters relating to the said Earl of Anglesey i. e. of some kind indulgent words upon a certain occasion spoken by his Lordship of the former and Loyal even Ecclesiastical Remonstrators and of his further intentions relating to them declared to His Grace the Duke of ORMOND then Lord Lieutenant were at least one moyety of the most immediate inducements the Author i. e. the said Procurator had to write this Book 763 764 c. In the Second Treatise Which contains Exceptions against the Remonstrance of the National Congregation c. THE National Irish Congregation varied in their Remonstrance of the year 1666 not only as to single words but as to entire clauses and their sense in the most material parts from the former Protestation subscribed by those others of the Irish Clergy and of the Nobility also and Gentry at London in the year 1661 S. V. And varied so of set purpose
Scripture teacheth the truth of that maxime as I have taken it Lex Christi neminem privat jure dominioque suo For if there be a latitude or liberty once given to mince these temporal rights without an express or certain warrant in that law it self of Christ it must be consequent that according to the caprichiousness or wilfulness of any either ignorant or interessed person the beleevers may be deprived now of one and then of another and at last of all kinds of civil rights under pretext forsooth of their submitting all to the pleasure of the Church by their profession of Christianity being that without such express warrant caution or provision there can be no reason given why of one more then of another or even why of one more then of all Having thus laid and demonstrated my first proposition or major of this my first argument I assume this other proposition for my minor But there was a natural or meer civil temporal or politick jurisdiction power authority or dominion which amounted to a coercive power in all temporal causes in every supream temporal Prince for example in Constantine the Great over all Christians whatsoever Laicks or Clerks living within his or their dominions before he or they became Christian in re vel in voto or by a perfect entire submission to the laws of Christianity and there is no such formal or virtual caution or provision in the law of Christ for the exemption of Clerks and after his or their such entire submission neither he nor they did expresly or tacitly and equivalently of their own accord devest themselves of or quit that power not even I mean in order to any Clerks whatsoever so living still within his or their dominions Ergo The same natural and meer civil temporal or politick jurisdiction power authority and dominion which amounts to a coercive power in all temporal causes over the same Christians whatsoever Laicks and Clerks living within his or their dominions remained in them and him after he or they were so become Christians The conclusion follows evidently the premisses being once admitted And of the premisses the minor only remains to be proved Which yet although having three parts into the first of Clerks to have been subject in politick matters to the supream coercive power of heathen Princes appears already and sufficiently demonstrated in my former Sections where I solved all the arguments of Bellarmine to the contrary from the laws divine either positive or natural and from the laws of Nations too and shall yet more positively and abundantly appear out of my very next immediatly following LXIII and LXIV Sections where by authorities of Scriptures and expositions of those very Scripture places by holy Fathers and by examples or practice according to such expositions I treat this matter and prove this first part of this Minor at large Nay and shall appear too most positively and abundantly out of my second and third arguments of reason either Theological or Natural either ad hominem or not ad hominem but abstracting from all concessions ab homine which follow in this very present Section And therefore to save my self the trouble of too much repetition I remit the Reader to those other Sections and arguments the rather that Bellarmine himself never scrupled in his first editions of his controversies nor ever until he saw himself in his old age beaten from all his other retreats by the writings of other Catholick Divines Canonists against him and consequently the rather that this matter of this first part of my foresaid Minor is now so little controverted that scarce any can be found of such impudence as to deny it notwithstanding Bellarmine's illgrounded chang◠or opposition in his old age whereof more presently And as to the second part of no such formal or virtual caution or provision in the law of Christ for the exemption of Clerks the very self same Sections which demonstrate the first part do also this But for the third or last part of this Minor which was that after their conversion to Christianity Princes did not quit or devest themselves of this supream coercive power of or over Clerks c I need not say more here or elswhere then I have before in answering Bellarmine's arguments out of the civil laws of Emperours Section LX. And nothing els but alleadg the known general and continual challenge of all Christian supream civil Magistrats Emperours Kings Princes and States to this very day of that supream coercive power of Clerks in all politick matters and their actual practice accordingly at their pleasure and when occasion requireth Notwithstanding all this evidence Bellarmine strugles like a bird in a cage For though he had not this argument framed against him dilated upon at full as I have heer but onely pressed by that bare maxime Lex Christi neminem privat jure dominioque suo objected to him by William Barclay he answers thus contra Barclaium cap. XXXIIII It is true sayes he the law of Christ deprives no man of his right and dominion proprié perise quasi hoo ipsum intendat nisi aliquis culpa sua privari mereatur properly and intentionally or that of it self or of its own nature it deprives no man so as intending to deprive him so if not in case of demerit when a man through his own fault deserves to be deprived of his right or dominion Yet when it raises laymen to a higher order such as that is of Clerks we must not wonder that consequently it deprives Princes of the right or dominion they had over such men whiles in a condition much inferiour Nor are there examples wanting in other things as well prophane as sacred 1◠The King rayses a private man till then subject to an Earl and rayses him I say to a Principality It must be confess'd this Earl is consequently deprived of his Lordship or dominion which till then he had over this man nay perhaps further even subjected consequently to this very man whose Lord he was so late The Pope rayses an ordinary or simple Priest to a Metropolitane a Priest subject otherwise to a Suffragan Bishop and by such creation without any injury to this Bishop or Suffragan places consequently such a Priest in a Metropolitical power of command over even the very Ordinary under whom he was immediately before A unbelieving heathen or infidel husband had the right of a her band to and dominion over his infidel wife she is converted to the Christian Faith he remaining still an unbeliever And the law of Christ doth without injury deprive him of all right evermore too that woman if she please Even so by a marriage done or contracted by words of the present time a Christian husband acquires a right to such a Christian wife and yet if she before consummation please to ascend to or embrace a higher and holier state of life or that of a Votress in a Cloyster within the tearm of
such Authorities as are truly unanswerable nor to such Reasons as are truly demonstrative no not then when they had not a word to reply not even the most learned and most resolute of them I mean and I mean them also too when sate together in the most general Congregation of their Representatives Behold the cause wherefore several of the more leading and more intriguing of them and long before the said general Congregation was held finding upon one side an absolute necessity on themselves to offer at least some kind of Remonstrance of their Loyalty that they might not seem to disown their being Subjects and on the other intending not to come home to the Contents of that of 1661. so Censured by the Divines of Louain and by the several Letters of the Internuncio of Flanders and of Cardinal Francis Bellarmine most earnestly and manifoldly attempted and this too by the mediation of several persons of Quality and Honour both Lords and Ladies of their own Religion and some too of the Protestant to persuade his Grace my LORD LIEUTENANT to be content with and accept of such a Remonstrance as they would frame for themselves being as they pretended they desired this favour not to decline the substance of Father Walshe's Remonstrance as they call'd it but to give it in their own Language for the Reasons elsewhere already given in this Book And behold the cause also why though his GRACE did as often condescend to their desire in that behalf as they made it by others or even by themselves yet having to that purpose received several Papers from them besides those given before as from the Dominicans and Jesuites and no two of all agreeing fully either in words or substance much less any of all coming home in all parts to the substance of that of 1661. which by all means they declined his GRACE considering also they were but particular persons or particular Orders at most and such as could not undertake for other persons and Orders of the Irish Clergy to concur with them in these Forms offered by them how short soever of that know Formulary which was still a Bugbear to them all indifferently answered every of them They came short of their pretended offers That he clearly saw it was not against the words only but against both words and substance or sense of Father Walshe's Remonstrance they excepted And that being this substance or sense to the full and in all parts of it was necessary from them he could not but expect their Subscription to that very Remonstrance which His MAJESTY had already and so graciously accepted of as being sign'd so freely and affectionately presented by a considerable number both of the Irish Clergy and of the Irish Nobility and Gentry because although perhaps some of them intended in some measure to come near the substance or sense of that His MAJESTY so received yet there must be some mystery still in varying from it besides that there would be no end in giving way to such variety and that none of those who perhaps meant well in other words could or would engage the rest should approve of what they offered in such words much less subscribe to it The Papers so offered and presented to His GRACE besides those other you have seen already of the Dominicans pag. 56. and of the Jesuites pag. 84 85 and 86. are these following A Paper given or delivered to the DUKE by Colonel Gerrot Moore 27 March 1664. as said he the substance of that which the Romish Clergy were ready to Subscribe and Declare But I say it appear'd after in their general Congregation of 1666. at Dublin as you may see in the Second Part of this First Treatise and in the Second and Third Treatise of this Book they were far enough from being ready to Subscribe or Declare any such Thing or Paper how even short soever or not home enough to the point I Engage my self to expose my life if occasion shall require in Defence of His Majesties Person and Royal Authority against any Prince Person or Power Spiritual or Temporal Forreign or Domestick that shall invade or disturb even by Sedition or Rebellion His Majesties Rights Person Authority or Government and hereunto I engage my self to be truly faithful notwithstanding any sentence of Deposition Excommunication Censure Declaration Absolution or Dispensation whatsoever I likewise abhor and detest from my very Soul the Position fathered without any just grounds upon Roman Catholicks That Faith is not to be kept with a People of a different judgment in Religion from them Another Paper or form of a Latin Declaration or Protestation offered by Patrick Daly Doctor of the Civil and Canon Law Vicar General of Armagh and Judge Delegate of the Province of Armagh to be Subscribed by himself as given also by himself to the LORD LIEUTENANT on the 7th of April 1664. the Earl of Clancarty and Lord Birmingham being present GEntem illam nimis barbaram imo a lege naturae omnino alienam esse oportet quae non Reges a Deo sibi impositos amant vereantur revereantur qui Regium nomen Majestatem ut rem augustam plane divinam non secundum ipsum Deum in temporalibus amplectendum esse censeant colendum Hybernis igitur omnibus incumbit sed iis praecipue qui Altari inserviunt aliorum instructionem susceperint manifestare quo quantoque gaudio auspicantissimam Serenissimi nostri Monarchae maugurationem ejusque reditum ad capescendum Majorem Imperium concelebrent Hinc ego ut alios omnes decet faelicissimo nostro Principi qui has Gentes prae aliis suam Hyberniam ex faucibus crudelium Tyrannorum quorum sub immani jugo hactenus gemuere eripuit cur non fausta omnia prospeta voveam cum longe a Christiana pietate absit aliter vel facere vel sentire At cum audierim apud multos suspiciorem suboriri viros nonnullos nostri ordinis in hoc Regno esse qui intestinas Seditiones moliri imo vires externas ad Rebellandum contra Sacram Regis Majestatem afcistere conentur aspirent celare nec possum nec debeo qua observantia quo amore animi finceritate in inctissimi mei Regis obedientiam prosperitatem rerar quomodoque ad id fideliter praestandum vel Sacramento paratus sum me addicere Itaque sincere sine omni aequivocatione fuco aut mentis reservatione Sanctissime in me recipio in verbo Sacerdotis affirmo Serenissimum Regem nostrum Carolum secundum vero legitimo haereditario jure huic Regno Hiberniae aliis omnibus suis Regnis ditionibus dominari meque in omnibus temporalibus civilibus illi fidelissime merito obtemperaturum nullamque sub Coelo esse potestatem quae me ab hoc Sacramento fidelitatis plus quam Subditos meae functionis Principum Germaniae Hispaniae aut aliarum Nacionum per universum Christianum
Because those that did only say they did not write nor cause any other to write of those matters to the Cardinal Protector but do not say they did not write nor cause others to write to their Agent at London Father Francis Fitz-Gerrald who kept weekly correspondence with the Irish Franciscan Colledge of S. Isidore at Rome nor say they did not even by themselves write to their other Brethren Agents at Louain Prague and Rome it self 3. Because they refused to sign such a Paper as was any way home to the purpose although drawn by one of their own body viz. A Paper containing exactly and nor more nor less but what follows here HAud sine dolore intelleximus ex parte Provinciae Hiberniae nomine nostro libellum su plicem exhibitum Eminentissimo ac Reverendissimo Domino Cardinali Protectori Ordinis nostri repletum calumniis adversus P. Petrum Valesium adversus P. Raymundum Caronum S. Theologiae Lectores alios dicta Provinciae Patres accusantem dictos Patres ac si essent contra authoritatem summi Pontificis fidei Catholicae detrimentum conantes expresse in dicto libello supplicatur quatenus dignaretur Eminentissimus Dominus Protector praecipere Commissario Generali Gallobelgico ut nullatenus dictis Patribus favere audeat Nos infrascripti convenientes simul in Domino congregati pro rebus huâ—us afflictae Provinciae Hiberniae strictioris observantiae postulati de hacre coram Domino protestamur praesentium tenore declaramus nec nos nec ullum ex nobis aliquid tale proposuisse aut exposuisse Eminentissimo ac Reverendissimo Cardinali Protectori nostro nec alicui ullo modo talem commissionem dedisse Totum subreptitic clandestine perperam factum a quocunque sit factum In quorum fidem hisce subscripsinus 26 Junii Anno Incarnationis Dominae 1665. In Conventu de Killihi As for those Letters of theirs to the Commissary General concerning a new Visitor the Procurator did not think fit to send them forward to Flanders 1. Because he had already seen by last Winters negotiation how the said Commissary was resolved to give none at all of those who had sign'd the Remonstrance 2. Because even in those very second or later Letters of that Diffinitory he saw that there was enough to signifie tacitely the Writers had been rather constrained than free in desiring any such thing 3. Because the Plague did by this time so rage at London that he doubted whether that Dutch Commissary would entertain any correspondence thence 4. That Father Caron had about the same time publish'd his Latin Folio work entituled Remonstrantia Hibernorum against and by occasion of the Louain Theological Faculties Censure of our Remonstrance and therefore knew the prejudice against the same Father Caron would be now greater than before 5. And lastly That he understood from Spain there was one Father Mark Brown an Irish Franciscan residing at Madrid for many years deputed by the Spanish General Ildephonsus Salizanes to be Commissary Visitor of the Province of Ireland and President of their Provincial Chapter But for what concern'd their new Remonstrance albeit the Procurator saw well enough the material variations of it from that was expected from them i.e. from that was sign'd at London and both humbly presented to and graciously accepted in the year 1662. by His MAJESTY even that about which the grand contest had continued so long nevertheless he failed not to present it to his Grace the Duke of ORMOND then Lord Lieutenant of Ireland and then also preparing to return to Ireland with the second Bill of Settlement or that called the Explanatory Bill Neither did he fail to endeavour by all the Reasons and Arguments he could to persuade his Grace to accept of and present to His Majesty this Franciscan Remonstrance as that unto which the Authors promised all other Regular Orders and the whole Body also of the Secular Clergy and Irish Nation would by their manual Subscription every one concur What moved him most to be so earnest herein were two or three Reasons First regarding the good or advantage not only of those Irish Ecclesiasticks but of the Catholicks in general both Clergy and Laity of that Kingdom was That neither his Grace nor His MAJESTIES other inferiour Ministers nor His Privy Council nor His Parliament in Ireland might thenceforward with so much reason as till then entertain or continue former prejudices jealousies against or former suspitions of that unfortunate people in relation I mean to their loyal or disloyal principles or affections towards the Crown and King of England The second and it regarding the general good of all both Protestants and Catholicks and Fanaticks too and His MAJESTIES great concern because the peace of all His People was That he foresaw the ancient Catholick proprietors would ere long lose all their patience when they did perceive clearly by the new Explanatory Bill as soon as Enacted by Parliament and executed by the Court of Claims there could be no more hopes of restitution for them and foresaw consequently that according to humane Tentations they would be ready to be persuaded to any thing if they had their Clergy and Commons likewise discontented and therefore ready to join with them on account of wanting the publick and free exercise of their Religion And the third near akin to the said second was That he saw also the conjuncture of affairs and humors portended then a War with Holland if not with France likewise which did soon after follow These Reasons together with the certain knowledge he had of the inclinations of many leading men both of the Clergy and Laity of that Nation made the Procurator so sincerely and earnestly move the LORD LIEUTENANT to accept at such a time what was freely offered and accordingly to present it to His MAJESTY And I remember it was then when the City of London was much depopulated by the Plague and the Court removed to Salisbury and the said Lord Lieutenant of Ireland at his Countrey-house of Moor-Park and consequently when I had leisure and opportunity enough to reason these matters with his Grace And I remember also that Father Patrick Magin one of Her Majesties Almoners being there at the same time and both acquainted with and interested very much in those affairs of the Irish Clergy did as much as he could assist me to persuade his Grace to accept of that Franciscan Remonstrance in order to a general Signature thereof by all th rest of Ireland that so all difference amongst them on account of Signing or not Signing the former condemn'd by Rome might cease and yet their Allegiance be sufficiently declared to His MAJESTY Notwithstanding all which earnestness and importunity the Procurator did before any such used ingenuously and plainly discover to his Grace the shortness reservedness unhomeness insignificancy imposture of this latter or wherein it came short of and of purpose varied from the former
esset iniquitatis vinculum fuerit institutum 2. That other passage also of the same Pope in cap. Venientes eod tit to the Consuls and People of Tudertum where he declares and gives a leading Rule That no Oath binds to the prejudice of a superiour Power especially that of His own Papal See and that this of the Apostolical See must be alwayes understood to be excepted in every kind of Oath made to any others whatsoever this being the meaning as appears in that whole Chapter of these words of that Pope to them cum praedictum â—â—ramentum vos excusare non possit in quo debet intelligi jus Superiorit exceptum 3. This also of the very same Innocent writing to the Archbishop of Naplos cap. Ad nostram eod tit Nec tu quando sub praemisso tenore jurastiâ— habebas in mente ut propteren venires contrae canonicas sanctiones alioquin non juramentum sed perjurium potius extitisset nec esset aliqua ratione fervandum 4. Moreover yet this other of the same great Pontiff writing to a certain Judge Judici Carolitano cap. Ea. eod tit Cum igitur nobis Ecclesiae Romanae fidelitatem facere tenearis si praestitum juramentum ei quod a tè nobis tamquam debitum est praestandum contrarium reputes illudillicitum judicabis illicito non obstante quod licite immo ex debito petitur exhibebis 5. Further yet this also of the very same Innocent to another Bishop Episcopo Ameliensi as you find it in cap. Sicut eod tit Quia non juramenta sed perjuria potius sunt dicenda quae contra utilitatem Ecclesiasticam attentantur Because sayes he they are not to be called Oaths but rather Perjuries which are taken against the utility or profit Ecclesiastical 6. And lastly what you read in cap. Nimis eod tit attributed by Gregory the IX to his Uncle the foresaid Innocent as Decreed by Him in the Fourth and great Council of Lateran and by the joint authority also of the same Council Decreed which yet is very false as you have before seen in this work Nimis de jure divino quidam Laici usurpare nituntur cum viros Ecclesiasticos nihil temporale obtinentes ab eis ad praestandum sibi fidelitatis juramenta compellunt Quia vero secundum Apostolum servus suo Domino stat aut cadit Sacri authoritate Concilii prohibemus ne tales Clerici personis saecularibus praestare cogantur hujusmodi juramenta Of which Canon see more at large Sect. Lxiv pag. 154. and pag. 159. c. As also of all other Canons of Discipline attributed to the said Fourth Council of Latoran see Sect. Xxx. pag. 65 66 67 68 and 69. So many specious arguments or pretences besides many others out of the known Papal Canons would and could the Anti-Remonstrants have ready at hand such of them I mean as are conversant in the Canons to justifie even the practice of that before said very wickedest Paradox in the world But however this matter be or I mean whatever those very worst of the Anti-Remonstrants would or could alledge for a Paradox or Position and practice thereof so nefariously dangerous those seven preceding considerations together with the five omissions given also before the same considerations wrought so powerfully on his foresaid Grace the Duke of Ormond then Lord Lieutenant of Ireland that all the other reasons and importunities either of Father Patrick or Father Walsh the Procurator could not move his Grace to accept of the said Franciscan Formulary as any way sufficient to assure His Majesty or His Majesties Protestant Subjects either of the true Loyalty or candid Ingenuity of those Franciscan framers or contrivers and offerers of it nor could persuade his Grace of as much as the reasonableness of either accepting or seeming to accept it not even I say for any other ends or of presenting much less recommending it in any manner to His Majesty Which his Graces judgment and unalterably fix'd resolution himself did in plain terms at his own foresaid house of Moor-Park after some few dayes thoughts in the month of July 1665. declare to both the said Irish Ecclesiasticks Patrick Maginn and Peter Walsh to the end they should give him no further trouble on that Subject About this time the Court being removed to Salisbury and his said Grace the Duke of Ormond then Lord Lieutenant being immediately after the said Answer given parted thither and from thence soon after but carrying the new Explanatory Bill with him and having likewise amongst others the said Father Patrick in his Train pass'd through Wales and shipâ—d for Waterford in Ireland and Father Walsh the Procurator having taken his way back to London thence to Holy-Head and so to Dublin what moreover ensued or what I mean the further Consultations and those not of the Franciscan Order onely but of the very whole body in general of the Roman Catholick Clergy of Ireland both Regular and Secular of all Orders Dignities and Degrees were and were I say upon that Subject of Remonstrating by Instrument and Subscriptions their Allegiance or Faithfulness and Obedience to the King you shall now see in the Second Part of this same First Treatise For here at last I end the former Part thereof Which former or First Part my necessary Disputes therein against the Four main grounds of the Louain Censure have made so prolix albeit I hope not more prolix than useful THâ— SECOND PART OF THE First Treatise THE ARGUMENT Indiction of the National Assembly Scheme of the Irish Clergy then Why so great numbers of them formerly opposed the Nuncio and so few now appeared for the Remonstrance Endeavours to hinder that National Assembly from meeting Archbishop of Tuam's Letters to that purpose What Kilmore did An Account of Primate Reilly and his Letters Bishop of Ferns and his Letters also Kilfinuran What John Burgat signified from Rome Cardinal Barberin and Internuncio Rospigliosi their several Letters by an Express Notwithstanding all which nay and Ardagh's very strange contrivance too the Fathers although with extreme prejudice and prepossession meet and sit on the day appointed being June the xi 1666. Speaker and Secretary chosen Ardagh and Kilfinuran admitted to and admonishâ—d by the Lord Lieutenant Tumult on the xiii ditto happen'd about Precedency or the Chair The Lord Lieutenant's first Message delivered the same xiii day Procurator's Speech c. What the Primate and Father Nettervil replied The Primate introduced to the Lord Lieutenant c. Second Message on the xv The Procurator withdraws and why Committees sent unto him from the Congregation but prevail not with him Yet of himself returns to the Congregation on the xvi and at their desires signs their new insignificant Recognition Three first Sorbon Declarations as applied to His Majesty c. signed by the Fathers in a different Paper Both together with a Petition presented to the Lord Lieutenant on the xvi at Night by Ardagh and
Kilfinuran On the xviii a third Message to the Congregation Burk and Fogerty on the xx present a second Petition to the Lord Lieutenant with a Paper of Reasons why the Fathers would not sign the other three Sorbon Declarations as applied c. The Lord Lieutenant's Answer being reported they or at least the chief of them are startled desire more time to sit and deliberate obtain it and yet conclude at last in the Negative Dr. Daly's exception Letter to them from the Subscribers of the first Remonstrance On the xxv their last sitting was Wherein the Procurator tells them first of the Lord Lieutenant's positive Commands to dissolve Next contradicts the relation of Ardagh Then refuses their offer both of Money and commendatory Letters In the fourth place gives a large account of the famed wonder-working Priest James Finachty Lastly moves for and procures their condemnation of two Books the one of C. M. the Jesuite and the other of R. F. the Cappuccin Some other passages relating to the Lord Lieutenant and Bishops which happen'd immediately after the Congregation was dissolv'd The Procurator's judgment of this Congregation leading Members thereof and of their several interests and ends After their dissolution the Doctrine of Allegiance in fifteen several Propositions debated for a whole Month by a Select number of Divines A Paper of Animadversions given to the Lord Lieutenant and his Graces commands laid on the Procurator I. IN September 1665. the Duke of Ormond then Lord Lieutenant of Ireland having landed at Waterford passed to Kilkenny and there continuing some Weeks Father Patrick Maginn one of Her Majesties Chaplains who had from England as I noted before waited on his Grace to take that good opportunity of crossing the Sea safely came from Kilkenny to Dublin some Weeks before his Grace but in order to a further Journey to see his Friends in the North of Ireland Being come to Dublin and the Procurator Father Peter Walsh who was about that time also landed from Holy-head giving him a visit for their acquaintance and some small friendship lately before contracted in England Father Patrick offered his own endeavours to work his Countreymen of the North to a Subscription of the Remonstrance hoping thereby to make them and consequently the rest of the Roman-Catholick Irish more capable of His Majesties future Favours and abate somewhat of the rigour of the Court of Claims pursuing the new Explanatory Act which the Lord Lieutenant had then brought with him from the King and Council of England to pass in this Parliament of Ireland In particular he promised to persuade his own Brother Ronan Maginn a Priest Doctor of Divinity bred in Italy and then by a Roman Bull or Papal Dean of Dromore to subscribe and that him and Dr. Patrick Daly Vicar-General of Ardmagh and under the Archbishop Edmund Reilly a banish'd man living then in France Judge Delegate of that whole Province he would bring to Dublin to confer with the Procurator in order to a general Subscription Pursuant to his promise Father Patrick being immediately departed to the North persuades Dr. Daly to come to Dublin as likewise he brought in his own company his Brother Ronan And indeed Ronan after some Weeks conference with the Procurator and study of such Books as he had from him especially Father Caron's Remonstrantia Hibernorum at last having fully satisfied his own judgment did both freely and heartily Subscribe But for Dr. Daly he was still where he formerly was viz. at the desires of a National Synod or Congregation before he could resolve See the First Part Sect. IX pag. 27. num 16. and Sect. X. pag. 40. num 16. and Sect. XVI pag. 48. near the bottom where you have not only those desires of a National Congregation urg'd anno 1662. by the Bishop of Meath by the Vicar Apostolical of Dublin and some other such Vicars too from several parts of Ireland but also in the above page 40 and page 50. the Procurator's answer at large shewing the unreasonableness of those desires then However now or in the year 1665. the Procurator seeing no remedy i. e. no other way to cure their obstinacy thought fit at last to try this by condescending to their demand What reasons induced him now to yield herein more than before were these 1. That the Primate of Ardmagh Edmund Reilly and the Bishop of Ferns Nicholas French such leading men especially the one in the North and the other in Leinster if not all over Ireland seemâ—d by their frequent Letters from beyond Seas to the Procurator desirous to come home upon any reasonable account and submission also to His Majesty and to the Lord Lieutenant for past offences in the time of War and not to disallow but rather allow of the Remonstrance and not they alone but also the Bishop of Kilfinuran 2. That now His Majesty having been engaged in a War both with Holland and France some of the discontented Irish had been tampering with France for creating new Troubles in Ireland either by an Invasion or Insurrection or rather both and that the exiled Bishops if returned home although on pretence only of such a Congregation their very coming home so whatever otherwise they intended really would much weaken and discountenance any such either hostile or rebellious design being the end of such a Meeting was generally and evidently known out of the very Letters of Indiction to be no other than to assure the King of their indispensable fidelity in all cases and after-times 3. That the doctrine of the Remonstrance and good opinion of that Formulary had even at home in Ireland many more Favourers and Abettors now in 1665. than it had some three years before many even learned and pious Churchmen out of several parts of Ireland though not called upon having since that time come of purpose freely and affectionately to Dublin to sign it besides those of the Nobility and Gentry and some others too of the Commons as you may see page 47. 95. and 99. of the First Part of this First Treatise where also page 13. you may see the Bishop of Ardagh then in 1665. at home in Ireland approving it under his hand from Seez in France Dec. 2. 1662. in his Letter to Sir Nicholas Plunket and page 93. Father Antony Docharty Minister Provincial of the Franciscan Order in Ireland likewise under his own hand to the Lord Lieutenant concurring to it 4. That by this time the Procurator himself who chiefly promoted that work had as by many others endeavours so in a special manner by his then late Reply to the Person of Quality not onely endeared himself to the Nation in general but even to many of his former opposers amongst them and much confounded the most malicious and inveterate of those who were his old profess'd enemies upon the Nuncio's account or that of his writings and actings against the Nuncio and Owen O Neill's party 5. That in all likelihood if the Congregation were held
of Christendom alone I say but of as much as poor Ireland onely nay and as mean of his pretences to that other kind of Monarchy which is purely spiritual as ever any of the Doctors of Sorbon or Fathers of Constance or Basil held men I say that being so principled and affected in order to the Pope were and are still nevertheless some of them true Disciples to C.M. the Irish Jesuite and to R. F. the Irish Cappuccin Yea men that look'd with contempt and scorn both on Gratianus Lucius alias Joannes Lynchius and Joannes Sinmichius for altering or suppressing the designs they had formerly had in writing the one his Cambrensis Eversus the other his Saulus Ex Rex before the King's Restauration but most particularly and singularly on Lucius for his pains and even ridiculous pains say they taken in his xxvii Chapter of his Cambrensis c. even say they also so quite contrary to his former design or that he had while he dream'd not of the Kings Restauration Lastly men who had the confidence some of them to speak personally and some to write under concealed names to my self in the years 1663. and 1664. not only of Henry II. and of all his Successors their want of true Title to Ireland but such indignities and horrible blasphemies also of later Princes as I thought better to pass over in silence than offend any with the relation such men certainly were not wanting And so I end at last all my Answers to those two Queries and with them this whole incidental or occasional Section which I have given and inserted of purpose here to make the Reader understand the more easily and clearly the true source and ground not only of all the opposition made as you shall presently see to frustrate the Indiction of the National Assembly or Congregation I mean to hinder any such meeting at all or any compliance with that Indiction but also all the strange carriage of the Fathers in that Assembly when notwithstanding all opposition to the contrary they convened and sate III. AS soon as the Letters of Indiction or Intimation which you please to call them were delivered great were the Contrivements both at home in Ireland and abroad in Forreign parts amongst the disaffected party of Irish Ecclesiasticks to hinder any such National meeting But no visible opposition save only 1. From John Burk Archbishop of Tuam then at home in Ireland living somewhere in Connaught within his Diocess and 2. From the Court of Rome by Cardinal Francis Barberin's Letters and which was consequent 3. From the Bruxel Internuncio Jacobus Rospigliosi These two last oppositions because made last in order of time I will give in their proper place viz. in the sixth Section The first from the Archbishop you have here in his own Letters together with an account of Kilmore which take up this present Section But before I give these Letters of Tuam I must desire you Reader for your own better information of this great but infirm and aged Prelate to turn to the vi Section pag. 23. 15 57. of the First Part and read my account there given of him Besides know That all the Clergymen Seculars and Regulars then at home in Ireland as many of them I mean as were unwilling to be put to the Test of their principles or affections in point of professing their due Allegiance to the King made their applications some by Letters and some also in person to Him as not only the onely Archbishop then at home in the Kingdom but the onely Prelate also that by reason of his name or family and of his having also formerly sided against the Nuncio though after he join'd with the rest of the Prelates in the Declaration and Excommunication of Jamestown might with most authority hinder any such National Congregation agreed upon without his privity and for such an end too as could not stand well with his credit who but some years before in France submitted to and received an absolution from the Censures of the Nuncio Moreover understand he was in his later years wholly guided by a Nephew of his own and a Regular of the Society of Jesuits one also by sirname Burk and consequently guided both by the Provincial and General Cabal of that Order Now whether his said Nephew minded him or no of his late submission and absolution in France of the Prophecy of Jarlach and such like other matters I know not but am sure he and others purposely filled the good Archbishops head with needless scruples or pretences against the design'd National Congregation as you may now see in his own Letters to Dublin answering the Bishop of Ardagh c. The first of which Letters dated 13 March 1666. S. N. were superscribed thus For the most Reverend Father in God Patrick c. And the tenour of them as followeth My Lord YOur Lordships Letter signed also by my very worthy Friends Patrick Vicar of Ardmagh James Vicar of Dublin and Oliver Vicar of Meath hath been in the way since the 18th of November till the 11th of February that it reached to my hand I am and was still very joyful to see your Lordships zeal and most commendable design to procure for our poor Catholick Clergy and Laity some ease and liberty to exercise those Functions of their respective Vocations which seem not consistent with the present Laws of the Land Since the receipt of your said Letter I delayed my answer till now and borrowed this time to advise with some of my next neighbouring Friends whom I durst not assemble together It is true the end ye propound to your selves and us all therein needed not this circumspection nay is such as not only good Prelates must aim at but also any well principled Catholick ought to have in his thoughts and care Yet the medium to attain to it by so general a meeting and of the chiefest of our Clergy without more assurance of their safety than your Letter may be very well scrupled by many not without much reason I grant ye have had as to your selves sufficient ground to write nay and for to ingage in calling and securing the Parties ye invite by a certain day to Dublin Is that enough to take away the fear from poor Souls that see unlawful meetings such as this must be reputed so constantly cryed against by the Government I leave your selves to judge it If our King God bless him or his Lieutenant were so jealous of our proceedings as some would make us believe they are and did consequently exact a sincere acknowledgment of our true Fidelity that which we ought and will make with our hearts and souls questionless neither would deny a safe conduct for such as might meet to contrive it But in the mean time as we are not put to it by the Vpper power and with its allowance to assemble it might seem overforwardness in our selves to venture upon a meeting that without special Authority
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
the strictness of Canons or to that formality of National Convocations which in some places by Custome requires two different Houses they held on after all along till they were Dissolved only their Committees meeting and sitting in other Rooms After viewing and saluting one another and taking their places in the best order they could it was moved presently to choose a Speaker or Chairman Whereupon others added it was fit both the Bishops should withdraw because it was not fitting to choose any for such a place but a Bishop while one might be had to possess it The Bishops being accordingly withdrawn there was no long debate ere Kilfinuran carried it Immediately therefore both being called in he was placed in the Chair and Nicholas Redmund Vicar General of Ferns chosen Secretary Nor had that day as far as I can remember any other thing of moment the House being presently adjourned to the next morning That whole next being the 12 of June was partly taken up in considering the Members present and proxies of the Absents who had Deputed others in their place and who had sent none as also in understanding who besides were on their journey coming but mostly in an incidental controversy moved concerning either the true or pretended priviledges and use or abuse of them by the Regular Clergy to the great prejudice not only of the Secular Clergy but even of the Laws and Commonwealth As to that of the Members it was found that four parts of five were already present in person some five or six Proxies more amongst which the Archbishop of Tuam's Proxy was produced by Kilfinuran to himself and the Bishop of Ferns's by Nicholas Redmond the said Bishops Vicar General to himself likewise about four or five others in their journey and the Bishop of Kilmore to have sent neither Proxy nor Letter But for the controversie about the priviledges of Regulars or about their pretence of such for Ministring and Solemnizing all the Sacraments even Baptism extream Unction and Matrimony even also for giving the viaticum to the dying and Burial to the dead in and throughout all Parishes whatsoever and that I mean withâ—ut the consent nay against the will of either Parish-Priest or Ordinary it was of a longer debate because the Excalceat Carmelits of Dublin and Jesuits too residing there bufled mightily to maintain their Practice For I remember well that my self though a Regular stood in this Controversie for the Seculars in pursuance of what I had a year or two before perswaded the Franciscans of that Capital City to do i. e. to come to a fair and equitable concordatum with the Seculars in all and every such matters That besides many other arguments upon that Subject and to perswade the more easily those other Regulars to the like fair agreement which was with an express Salvo semper jure verorum privilegiorum I alledged the known Canon of the 4th Oecomenical Synod it of Calcedon I mean for the plenary subjection of all Regulars whatsoever to their respective Bishops That seeing the Jesuits professing openly and obstinatly their resolution not to submit in such matters to the decision vote or arbitriment of the Congregation I moved earnestly before their faces to have them totally excluded the House in case they did not conform or submit to the determination which that National Assembly should agree upon That albeit three parts of four of that whole House were Seculars and many of the Regulars too for them in such points yet not above two or three of so great a number not even I mean of the very Seculars would in their own so near concern appear or second the motion made for excluding those Members although declaring so positively and openly in such matters without any reason but their own wilfulness against the sense of all others present And finally that also hence I plainly saw how ligued they were all generally to oppose the main end of that meeting i. e. that for which the Indiction of it was there having been no other reason which might have induced them to suffer so great an affront but that they knew those Jesuits would be main opposers of signing not only the Remonstrance but even any other Instrument or Formulary of Recognition which might condemn as much as by any either direct or indirect consequence those positions of their beloved Bellarmin or Suarez Sanctarellus Becan Gretser Mariana c which relate to the Popes pretended Authority for deposing Princes Absolving Subjects from their Allegiance and Licenseing them to take Arms against their Soveraigns After these contests the House being Adjourned again till next morrow the 13 of June I was no sooner come to my Chamber that Evening than unexpectedly enters to me the Lord Primat Edmund Reilly all alone arrived just then having pass'd from France to Flanders and thence in hast through England to Chester where he shipâ—d for Dublin And his Lordship was no sooner sate down and a very few words pass'd between us than he puts his hand in his pocket draws out and delivers to me two originals and a copy of a third Letter too all of them written by Internuncio Rospigliosi on the 20 24 and 3 of May then lately past 1666. the first to himself the second to Martin Lord Bishop of Ipres in Flanders third to Father Patrick Dempsy an Irish Secular Priest then Prefect of the Irish Seminary at Lile and all to the same purpose either of totally hindering by all possible means the very sitting or meeting of the Irish Clergy in this National Congregation or at least and if that could not be of disswading them from subscribeing the Remonstrance that Valesian Formulary as the said Internuncio calls it but the former two were also particularly to disswade the foresaid Primat himself or at least delay him for some time from going to Ireland and consequently from being present in the National Congregation viz. least his presence there should honour such a meeting or any way further the design of Subscribing such a Remonstrance A fourth Letter also of some two or three lines written to him by the Bishop of Ipres wherein the Internuncio's Letters were enclosed the Primat delivered to me at the same time that I might see how the directions were sent and came to his hands just when he was ready to embark at the Water-side in Flanders And all these Letters after I had perused them he bid me keep nor at any time after did call for them from me Now what moved him to give or shew them so even at our very first encounter and salutes I could not imagine unless it was to fright me from prosecuteing my principal design or that for which the Congregation was first design'd by me for he did not then know that I had lately other Letters to others both from Rospigliosi and Barberin to the same purpose And indeed a day or two more not only discovered that to have been his end but also together
Instrument I was more concernâ—d than any one person whatsoever of them all to hinder such a temerarious Resolution of Dissolving a Resolution occasioned indeed by that unlucky accident of the Primats challenging the Speakers Chair but after driven on so furiously and obstinately out of a far other design These reasons and consent of others wrought at last even the more Factions to some calm within the House while others of the more sober Party went forth to perswade the Primat And he suffering himself at last to be perswaded by reason returns fairly of himself and is content to leave the Chair to Kilfinuran a Declaration being first made by all that that Chair was no place nor seat of Dignity but of Ministry or Office only and that it was confessed the praeeminence of place belong'd of right to the Primat of Ardmagh before all the Clergy and Prelats of Ireland This unexpected tumult being so at last over and all things quiet the Gentlemen viz. Sir Nicholas Plunket Knight Sir Robert Talbot Barronet and John Walsh Esq who all three came from my Lord Lieutenant were introduced Being seated and having congratulated the Fathers so wonderful and happy a change under his Majesties Reign after those late and long dismal days of all kind of evil under Usurpers and even therefore a change questionless wrought by the powerful Arme of the High God alone since it gave them so much both liberty and security to sit there together in the Capital Citty of the Kingdom They Declared that they were sent from His Grace upon a special Errand to them but Commanded also by His Grace to read it to them out of Paper least peradventure some mistake should happen to be either of his words or sense delivered otherwise Which being in a few words declared by one of the said three Gentlemen viz. by Sir Nicholas Plunket I remember very well that presently after the third of them I mean John Walsh Esq who had informer times been as Sir Nicholas also was one of the Supream Council of the Roman-Catholick Confederates of Ireland stood up and read intelligibly twice over to the Congregation being all silent and very intent a paper containing exactly these following matters and words as the whole and only errand or message sent from His Grace at that time by those Gentlemen to the Fathers The Lord Lieutenants first Message to the Congregation THat it is too well known to divers persons in the present meeting of the Romish Clergy in this City of Dublin what attempts have been upon the Royal Authority in this Kingdom under colour of the pretended Authority Power and Jurisdiction of the Pope and how far those attempts prevailed in keeping many of the People from returning to their due obedience to the Crown and in withdrawing divers of those from it who were returned to it hath sufficiently appeared not only by the violation of the Peace granted them by His Majesties gracious Indulgence and Clemency but also of the Faith of the then Confederate Roman Catholicks by the instigation procurement and pretended Authority of Rinuccini the Popes Nuncio in the year 1646 and by the proceedings of the Titular Bishops at Jamestown in the year 1650. Secondly That divers of the Nobility and Gentry of Ireland and of the said Claergy in January and February 1661. calling to mind those attempts and the deplorable consequences thereof to the Crown and to themselves presented His Majesty with a Remonstrance and Protestation of their Loyalty to His Majesty and of their renunciation and detestation of any Doctrine or Power from whence such practises might be deduced To which Remonstrance and Protestation divers others of the Nobility and Gentry and most of the said Clergy Resident in this Kingdom have not yet subscribed although more then four years are effluxed since the same was first presented to His Maiesty Thirdly That the said Clergy whose example and incouragement the Laiety of their Profession may possibly expect have delayed their Subscriptions on pretence that they wanted the liberty of adviseing and consulting which they conceived necessary in a matter of so great importance which being now admitted to them with freedom and scourity It is expected that they should make use thereof for asserting and owning His Majesties Royal Authority to the satisfaction of all His Majesties good Subjects and to the particular advantage of the said Clergy themselves and those of their Religion and imploy the time that for that purpose will be allowed them which neither can nor need belong both in respect of the present conjuncture of Affairs and for that it may reasonably be presumed that in four years time the said Remonstrance and Protestation is sufficiently understood and may be speedily resolved upon By the Copy of this Message which I have out of the Secretaries Office delivered to me next day after by His Graces command or I mean by the Endorsement of that Copy it appears the said message was sent by advice also of these Lords of the Privy Council of Ireland the Lord Primat Lord Chancellor Lord Treasurer Earl of Arran Earl of Anglesey and Mr. Secretary Davis However the foresaid three Gentlemen having so delivered their message but left no Copy at all of the Paper and having also in a few words more from themselves particularly recommended to the Fathers that resolution upon and answer to the Lord Lieutenant's Message which might be in all points answerable to his Graces just expectation of their ready unanimous and chearful concurrence to that Remonstrance by their Manual Subscription thereof as of a truly Loyal Instrument or clear profession of true indispensable Allegiance to the King and well indeed might these very three Gentlemen exhort thereunto as having themselves had long before amongst others subscribed that very individual Formulary moreover having in the last place heartily wished likewise all other good Counsels prudent Resolutions and happy success to the Synod they took leave of the Synod they took leave and departed being conducted forth by some of the Prelats and other chief Men of the Congregation Those being departed and these returned and all seated as before the Procurator stood up and addressing himself first to the Chair-man then to the other Prelats and after to all the rest of the Fathers he made his first Speech to them principally indeed pursuing the Lord Lieutenantâ—s Message on the Subject or end of their Assembly but withal giveing as large and as full an account both of all his own actings in the quality of their Procurator for them the 6 years past i. e. ever since he had received in the year 1661. their Procuratorium to do so and as full also of the Original and procedure expediency and necessity conscienciousness and Catholickness of the Remonstrance and of the contrivance and disputes after nevertheless against it and subscribers of it as the weight and multiplicity of such matters required and as an hour or an hour and half would
remit the Reader to such other Books and other places also in this same Book where he may find as much satisfaction as can be desired To clear in all respects whatsoever that very matter i. e. To evince as clear as the Sun shines in his brightest meridian glory That not even so much as that very species or kind of Apostasie which is or ought to be only grounded on the sin of disobedience or contumacy against some lawful Commands or Summons can be with any justice or truth objected to Me and Caron or to either of us No not even now in the year 1673 to me alone though I confess that I have my self alone since the 20th of September 1669 at several times opposed but Canonically opposed three several Citations or Summons and Commands at the instance and by the procurement of the late Bruxel-Internuncio Airoldi and other Roman Ministers abroad and their Irish Emissaries both abroad in other Countries and at home in Ireland but of purpose to suppress utterly the doctrine of the Remonstrance sent one after another from beyond Seas yea and from the lawful or acknowledged General Superiours of my own Order enjoining me under pain of Excommunication ipso facto latae to appear before them in Forreign Countries and within the term of time peremptorily prefix'd by them So much here by occasion of that second friendly Advertisement given me by my Lord of Ferns or of that great Romans having termed Me and Caron Apostates and whose Letter terming us so my Lord of Ferns did see although otherwise to treat here of that matter was I know Forreign enough to the main scope of my third Appendage which had been sufficiently treated before And therefore now There remains only the fourth and last of all the Appendages viz. A Paper of Animadversions given to the Lord Lieutenant and His Grace's Commands laid on the Procurator Upon or by occasion of which Paper I have no more to say but 1. That when the Commissioners of the National Congregation had presented His Grace the Lord Lieutenant their new Remonstrance or new Recognition and His Grace taking time to consider and examine throughly the import thereof had shewed it to such Lords of the Kings Privy Council in that Kingdom whom He thought fit to consult in that affair before He gave His Answer to the Congregation which long'd very much to know whether He would accept thereof as satisfactory one of the said Lords viz. the Earl of Anglesey then Vice-Treasurer of Ireland now at the writing hereof Lord Privy Seal in England drew briefly some material Animadversions upon it shewing its insignificancy and unsatisfactoriness in or as to the main points wherein the Fathers should have declared themselves 2. That soon after they i. e. that Congregation had dissolved His Grace was pleased to tell me of that Paper of Animadversions and together give me the very Original of which Original as I have it by me still so I give here a true exact Copy viz. Animadversions on the Remonstrance or Protestation of the Romish Clergy of Ireland subscribed the 15th day of June 1666. WE Your Majesties Subjects His Majesties satisfaction is the pretence of both these Remonstrances of this and of the former presented by Peter Walsh the Procurator of the Romish Clergy of Ireland 1661. If the former had not been in some degree satisfactory in England it had not been offered to their Subscriptions here Therefore in differing from that they must design either to offer more which is not pretended or less which will not be enough or only to alter the expression But as to that it is not probable that they would put themselves to any stress to find out better words to signifie their meaning than those which have already obtained some acceptance It may therefore be more than suspected that they decline that first Remonstrance because it is not lyable to so many reserves and uncertainties as they would have it and they will have another of their own which is more subject to what interpretations they shall please to put upon it The truth of which Conjecture is too evident by these following particulars differing from the former Remonstrance Undoubted Sovereign Seems to signifie only him who exercises Supreme Authority but the rightful Sovereign as it is expressed in the former is he who ought to exercise that Authority As any Subject ought to be to his Prince The Pope often pretending Authority directly or indirectly over Princes in Temporal affairs this expression secures not our King of their obedience against the pretensions of the Pope And as the Laws of God and Nature require I living in Ireland will obey the great Turk as far as the Laws of God and Nature require but the former Protesters will obey King Charles as far as the Laws and Government of this Kingdom require The Laws of God and Nature are general to all Mankind and every Rebel pretends to an observation of them They design not obedience to a particular King who will not regulate it by the particular constitution of his Kingdom We will inviolably bear true Allegiance That is in their own sense as far as the Laws of God and Nature require Some make the Pope Judge of the former but every man makes himself Judge of the latter The King must please both to be sure of these men No Power on Earth shall be able to withdraw us from our duty herein This is little significant seeing their duty is tryable only by the Laws of God and Nature of which the Pope and themselves are Judges But if they intend really to oppose any design of the Pope against the King why do they not say they will do it in that Paper which pretends to secure His Majesty in that particular Their obedience to the Pope is that which makes the jealousie of their disobedience to the King Therefore to clear themselves they should have renounc'd the Popes Authority as it may be opposite to the Kings If they dare not name opposition to him how can it be expected that they will oppose him And how careful they are not to give offence to the Pope we see by their clear leaving out almost the whole Paragraph in the former Remonstrance which secures particularly against his Vsurpations If they say they decline naming him in bare respect to him it seems they prefer their Complement beyond their duty but if that be it why then do they name him in their Subscriptions to the first Proposition of the faculty of Sorbon We will to the loss of our blood assert Your Majesties Rights But they are still no more than the Laws of God and Nature allows you The Laws of the Kingdom are insignificant It is not our Doctrine that Subjects may be discharged c. But doth their Doctrine condemn and anathematize such practises Or do they condemn and anathematize that Doctrine Do they condemn the Doctrine of Suarez Bellarmine Mariana Salmeron Becanus
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
Navigation the great support of Ireland quite beaten down his Excellency disheartning the Adventurers Vndertakers and Owners as Captain Antonio and others favouring Hollanders and other Aliens by reversing Judgments legally given and indefinitely concluded before his coming to Authority By which depressing of maritime affairs and not providing for an orderly and good Tribunal of Admiralty we have hardly a Bottom left to transmit a Letter to His Majesty or any other Prince ANSWER Here again VVe are charged in general with disheartning Adventurers Undertakers and Owners and no man named but Captain Antonio nor the particular wherein he was disheartned set down We are further charged with reversing of Judgments legally given and definitively concluded before Our coming to Authority but no particular Judgment so reversed is or indeed can be instanced So that all VVe can answer to this part is That it is not true and for what remains That VVe placed the power of Admiralty in this Kingdom according to the Assemblies instance and from time to time gave Commissions to such persons as the Commissioners desired in several parts to hear and determine maritime causes Sixth Article of the Declaration The Church of Cloine in our possession at the time of making the Peace violently taken from Vs by the Lord Inchiquin contrary to the Articles of Peace no Justice or Redress was made upon Application or Complaint ANSWER For Answer to this VVe refer you to Our Answer to the first Article of the pretended Grievances which Article and Answer are as followeth Article viz. The first of those called the Grievances First They have not been suffered to enjoy the Churches and Church-livings which in the time of the perfection of the Articles of Peace they possessed but were after the said Articles made and perfected put forth expelled and still kept out of possession of divers Parish-Churches and their Tythes and Livings and even of some of the Cathedral Churches and many of the Prelates and Pastors hindred from exercising of their respective Jurisdictions and Functions amongst their Flocks and Grants made of some of their Bishopricks and their Livings which sithence the War or the greatest part of it hath been and yet is in the possession of the Catholick Bishops to Protestant Bishops and notwithstanding the Prelates and Clergy in the Counties of Cork and Waterford where chiefly those Grievances happened have made suit for remedy yet have they obtained no redress in their suits nor have they say the Commissioners of Trust in whom the last General Assembly of the Confederate Catholicks of this Nation which concluded the said Peace put their confidence for procuring an effectual compliance with the said Articles and seeing in no point they should be violated or broken in this so important a point concerning the Church given effectual furtherance for recovering their right to the said Prelates and Clergy Answer viz. To that first Article of those called the Grievances First We deny that they if thereby be meant the Roman-Catholick Clergy were not suffered to enjoy the Churches and Church-livings which at the time of perfecting the Articles of Peace they possessed or that by the Articles of Peace they ought to possess And as to the instances made in the Margent the composers of this Article do very well know That their possession of those Churches and Church-livings were flatly denied by the Protestant Clergy And it is very well known to the Commissioners who followed that business with diligence and earnestness enough That We never refused nor delayed to afford them any just means of bringing that Controversie to a final end till at length by Treachery and the Rebels power the Things controverted were lost to both Parties Nor was there any Complaint made unto Us since the conclusion of the Peace till now that the Romish Prelates or Pastors or any of them have been hindred from exercising their respective Jurisdictions and Functions amongst their Flocks except one Complaint made of the Governour of Dungarvan wherein We were ready to have given such Redress upon hearing all Parties as should have been found fit if the said Complaint had been prosecuted We know of no Grant made by His Majesty of any Bishoprick whatsoever since the conclusion of the Peace nor can We find any Article of the Peace that restrains His Majesty from making such Grants so the Roman-Catholick Bishops be not thereby dispossessed of what they were possessed of upon conclusion of the Peace until His Majesty declare His pleasure in a Free Parliament in this Kingdom And whatever His Majesty might intend to declare the making of Protestant Bishops could be no anticipation thereof to the prejudice of the Roman-Catholicks since Bishops are held essentially necessary to the exercise of the Religion of the Church of England Seventh Article of the Declaration That Oblations Book-monies Interments and other Obventions in the Counties of Cork Waterford and Kerry were taken from the Roman-Catholick Priests and Pastors by the Ministers without any redress or restitution ANSWER For this We answer That it was conceived by the Ministers herein mentioned that where they had possession of the Church-livings the Obventions here mentioned were also due to them But whether it were or not sure We are there was never any Complaint made to Us in this particular till Our coming to Tecroghan after the loss of Droghedagh and that within a very little time after before the truth of the Allegation could be examined the Towns of Munster revolted and the business was so decided at least if any difference of this kind continued in the County of Kerry which was longer held We never after Our being at Tecroghan heard of it that We remember Eighth Article of the Declaration That the Catholick Subjects of Munster lived in a slavery under the Presidency of the Lord Inchiquin those being their Judges that before were their Enemies and none of the Catholicks Nobility or Gentry admitted to that Tribunal ANSWER To this VVe answer That no complaint of any such slavery imposed by the said Lord President or Presidency was made to Us but on the contrary That upon his Lordships instance VVe directed Our Letters to him to swear and admit of the Council of that Province the Lord Viscount Roch of Fermoy the Lord Viscount Muskery Major General Patrick Purcell Lieutenant Colonel Gerard fitz Morrice and others all which were written unto by the Lord President to come to him to be sworn accordingly whereof the Lord Muskery Major General Patrick Purcell and Lieutenant Colonel Fitz Morrice were sworn but the rest not coming according to the Letters could not be sworn Ninth Article of the Declaration The conduct of the Army was improvident and unfortunate nothing happened in the Christianity more shameful than the disaster at Rathmines near Dublin where his Excellency as it seemed to ancient Travellers and men of Experience who view'd all kept rather a Mart of Wares a Tribunal of Pleadings or a great Inne of