THE History Vindication OF The Loyal Formulary or Irish Remonstrance So Graciously Received by His MAJESTY Anno 1661. AGAINST All CALUMNIES and CENSURES IN SEVERAL TREATISES WITH A True Account and Full Discussion of the Delufory Irish Remonstrance and other Papers Framed and Insisted on By the National Congregation at Dublin Anno 1666 And Presented to His MAJESTIES then Lord Lieutenant of that Kingdom the Duke of ORMOND But Rejected by HIS GRACE To which are added THREE APPENDIXES Whereof the Last contains The Marquess of Ormond Lord Lieutenant of Ireland His LONG EXCELLENT LETTER Of the Second of December 1650. In Answer to both the DECLARATION and EXCOMMUNICATION of the Bishops c. at Jamestown THE AUTHOR Father Peter Walsh of the Order of St. Francis Professor of Divinity Melior est contentiâ— pietatis causa suscepta quà m vitiosa concordia Greg. Nazianz. Orat. 1. pro Pace Printed Anno M.DC.LXXIV TO THE CATHOLICKS OF ENGLAND IRELAND SCOTLAND And all other DOMINIONS UNDER His Gracious Majesty CHARLES II. My Lords Fathers and Gentlemen HOw customary soever amongst Writers both ancient and modern sacred and profane the Dedication of Books hath been as well sometimes only to desire patronage as at other times gratefully to acknowledge benefits yet I do ingenuously confess it was nor this nor that end nor indeed any private regard whatsoever made me after some debate with my self resolve at last upon a Dedicatory Address to the most illustrious name of British and Irish Catholiks that name of names and most glorious of titles so peculiarly challeng'd and zealously contended for by you as the proper inheritance of those in this famous Empire of Great Brittaine that continue in Ecclesiastical Communion with the Catholick Bishop of old Rome What induced me to this Dedication or rather what required it as a duty of me was your undenyable concern above others in the subject or matters treated in this Book and indeed whole design of it even that very publick and great concern of yours appearing all along to be so proper so intrinsick nay so essential to the Book it self and if I may speake freely that very concern of yours the most universal and most considerable of any can be thought of at present by you To evidence your being every one so concern'd I think there needs no more than to consider what the said subject is It is 1. in general the old and fatal Controversie of late again much more unreasonably and vehemently if not more unhappily too then at any time before renewed amongst his Majesties Roman Catholick Subjects especially those of Ecclesiastical Function about the nature measures and obligation of Allegiance due to His Majesty from them in meer temporal things only And 2. in particular it is for one moyety or principal part thereof the Loyal Formulary of remonstrating promising and protesting indispensable Faith and Obedience to our Gracious King Charles the Second in all civil and temporal tâ—ings whatsoever according to the Laws of the Land or of His Kingdoms respectively Which Formulary was first conceived and agreed upon in the Reign of His Majesties Father of glorious Memory about five and thirty years since by the Roman Catholicks of England or at least some leading persons of them but more lately viz. after His present Majesties happy Restauration and more effectually too was espoused by considerable numbers of those of Ireland for many evident Reasons The chief Reason was the rather by that means to induce His Sacred Majesty to command the ceasing of a rigorous persecution which was then * 1661. actually on foot in that Kingdom under the Triumvirat of Sir Maurice Eustace Lord Chancellor and the Earls of Orrery and Mountrath against all Roman Catholicks universally without distinction or exception of any After much both private and publick debate about this Formulary in the years 1661 and 1662 it not only was subscribed at several times and places by the proper hands of threescore and ten of their Clergy whereof a Bishop was one and a hundred sixty four of their chiefest Lay Nobility Gentry and Proprietors whereof one and twenty were Peers viz. seven Earls nine Viscounts and five Barons but immediately after the first Subscription at London anno 1661. was solemnly presented to and graciously accepted by His Majesty And I suppose they that had any dislike of it in those dayes were well enough pleased with their shares of the success which was His Majesties effectual countermanding the winds and tempest of persecution throughout Ireland and his gracious smiling on the distressed Catholicks both People and Clergy of that Island This honest Formulary now commonly called the Irish Remonstrance so necessarily and piously espoused thus by so many good Patriot-Subscribers as a conscientious Christian full and satisfactory profession of the duty which by all Laws divine and humane they as well as all other Subjects owe His Majesty against all pretences of the Pope to the contrary was even for that very cause i. e. for being so Christianly honest and sincerely loyal soon after traduced and impugned by sundry Ecclesiasticks of the Roman Communion and chiefly by many of those Irish who had received most benefit by it These good men were not content by their reproaches and calumnies to make it odious at home but also dealt so by their disloyal Arts and powerful Friends in other Countries that they got it to be censur'd and condemn'd in formal terms as unlawful detestable sacrilegious yea in effect as schismatical and heretical by the publick Censures of the Lovain Theological Faculty and publick Letters also both of the Bruxell-Internuncio's De Vecchii and Rospigliosi and of the Roman Cardinals De propaganda Fide under the presidency of Cardinal Francis Barbarin himself though amongst other his many titles at Rome stiled Protector of England Having thus gotten the face of Authority on their side they have not ceased ever since for twelve years to the present 1673 but especially these five or six last years have in a most furious manner proceeded even with all the vilest arts of malicious Cabals Conspiracies Plots Libels and an Impostor Commissary and a forged Commission and all the most lying slanders imaginable to persecute and defame the few remaining constant Ecclesiastical Subscribers They have kept them in continual chace with all the greatest and all the most illegal most uncanonical extent of an abused Power with monitories citations depositions excommunications denunciations and even publick affixion or posting of them Of which extremely unjust and scandalous procedures against men no way contumacious as I have sufficiently proved * Vid. Hibernica Valesii Tert. Part. Epist Prim. ad Haroldum there was no cause in nature that appeared or was pretended but a manifest design to force them to renounce their Allegiance to the King by retracting their Subscriptions When they had found them of proof against these attempts under colour of Law they broke out into rage and being
neither that nor his offer to put himself into the City when Ireton was encamped before it could prevail with them 30. The Proceedings of the Bishops about this time i. e. their clandestine Assembly at Jamestown of their own meer motion and power without any licence approbation permission or knowledge of his Excellency ib. The Letter dated 24th of July 1650 and Signed by Thomas Flemming Archbishop of Dublin and John Burk Archbishop of Tuam to his Excellency which shews what kind of Assembly that of Jamestown was like to be ib. His Excellencies Answer from Roscommon to that Letter 2d of August that year 91. He leaves it to the judgment of the General Assembly of Loghreogh to which he writes Whether the most absolute Monarch of Christendom could after a more Kingly manner have required the advice of his Subjects or with a more negligent State have promised gracious Answers than these two Archbishops did from and to him in their said Letter 92. His Answer to the said two Archbishops produced the expressions you will find in a Letter of the whole Congregation it self to his Excellency from Jamestown dated 10th of August 1650 and subscribed by them which was also a Letter of Credence viz. to be given by his Excellency to the Bishop of Dromore and Dr. Charles Kelly 92. Particulars of the Message sent from the said Congregation by the Bishop of Dromore and Dr. Charles Kelly to his Excellency and by these Messengers or Commissioners delivered on the 13th of August 1650. 93. Neither by this Message nor the Letter of Credence of the 10th of August could any imagine that the satisfaction the Prelates do seemingly promise in both to give should be their Declaration against his Person and Authority and their Excommunication too against any that would feed help or adhere unto him both dated 11th and 12th of August the very next dayes after they had sent the above-recited both Letter and Message 93 94 96. His Excellencies Answer from Loghreogh on the 31 of August same year to the Prelates met at Jamestown i. e. to their said Letter of Credence 94. His Answer also to the particulars of the Message 95. The unhandsomness first injustice next and lastly the rashness of their said both Declaration and Excommunication 96. What not only an invasion these proceedings of the Bishops is upon the Regal Power but usurpation also on the freedom of the Nobility and Commons is fit for the General Assembly of all the Three Estates viz. then sitting at Loghreogh to consider ib. Letters from the Bishop of Clonfert and Doctor 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 Fearns to the Earl of Westmeath and other Officers 96 97. Reflections on these Letters ib. The grounds of the Congregations or the Jamestown Assemblies proceeding to an Excommunicating of all that should feed help or adhere to his Excellency the Kings Lieutenant of that Kingdom are set down in their Declaration of the 12th of August intituled A Declaration of the Archbishops Bishops and other Prelates and Dignitaries of the Regular and Secular Clergy of the Kingdom of Ireland against the continuance of His Majesties Authority in the Marquess of ORMOND Lord Lieutenant of Ireland for the misgovernment of the Subject and the ill conduct of His Majesties Army and the violation of the Articles of Peace at Jamestown in the Convent of the Fryarâ— Minors the 12th of August 1650. 98. Reflections on this Title Pag. 98. Now supposing they were the Monarchs they would be and let the grounds of their Excommunication set forth by them be duly examined it will be found that their sentence is most unjust So that as their Tribunal is usurped their Judgment is erroneous ib. The Preamble of their Declaration and His Excellencies Answer to that Preamble 99 100. First Article of their Declaration and his Answer 101. Second Article and its Answer 102. Third Article and its Answer 102 103 104. Fourth Article and its Answer 105 106. Fifth Sixth Seventh and Eighth Article with his Answers 107 108 109. Ninth Article which is concerning the conduct of the Army ib. Answer at large to this Ninth Article 109 110 111 112 113 114. Tenth and Eleventh Article and Answers to them 115. Twelfth Article and the Answer thereunto 116. Thirteenth Fourteenth and Fifteenth Article with Answers to them 117 118. Conclusion of the Declaration 119. The Names of those who Subscribed this Declaration both at Jamestown and Galway 119 120 121 122 123. His Excellency having on the 13th of October the same year 1650 received in Print His Majesties Declaration made in Scotland against the Peace concluded in 1648 with the Irish he assembles the Commissioners of Trust on the 23d of October shews them the said Declaration made by His Majesty and by their advice and consent issues his Letters of the 24th of October for the meeting of the Assembly * This was the Assembly unto which His Excellency writ this long and excellent Letter whereof I give here the Heads understand you a General or National of all the Three Estates of the Roman-Catholicks of Ireland at Loghreogh on the 15th of November that same year 1650. He writes also on the foresaid 23d of October his Letter dated at Inis to the said Commissioners of Trust assuring them he would stand by the Irish Nation for maintaining to them the said Peace of 1648 until they could have free access to His Majesty provided they of their part did four things Whereof the first is That in the mean time all the Acts Declarations and Excommunications against him and the People obeying him issued by the Bishops met at Jamestown the former August be revoked by the same Bishops c. See that Letter at length 124. This offer with all the four necessary conditions annexed to it was satisfactory to the said Commissioners of Trust as appears by their Letter of the 24th of Octob. dated at Inis to His Excellency which you may read 125 126. In compliance with their desire expressed in their said Letter His Excellency gave way to their Treating with the Prelates at Galway ib. Proposals accordingly made the 29th of October 1650 by the same Commissioners to the Committee of Bishops at Galway And His Excellencies brief Animadversions upon those Proposals if not rather in general upon the Answers made by the said Committee of Bishops 127. Those Answers themselves in terminis of the Committee to the said Commissioners of Trust in Four Articles together with His Excellencies Replies to each of them 127 128 129. After the said Four Articles of their Answers the Bishops resolve thus in express terms viz. Upon consideration of the whole matter we may not consent with safety of Conscience to the Provisoes of Revoking our Declaration and Excommunication demanded by His Excellency or granting any assurance to Him or the Commissioners of Trust for not attempting
now resolv'd to hunt them to death they left no way untried direct indirect overt covert of truth and of lies of force and fraud of secret machinations and open violence They laid about them every where both abroad in other Countries of Europe and at home in His Majestie 's Dominions being every where back'd with the special authority of the Court of Rome and even here at London which may be thought stranger being assisted by the special ministry of those who pretended still to be nevertheless very loyal Subjects to the Crown of England But no where so effectually as in the Kingdom of Ireland where His Holiness made thirteen Prelates viz. four Archbishops and nine Bishops in a very short time * 1669. 1670. 1671. that is immediately upon and soon after the Duke of Ormond's removal from the Government of that Kingdom in that very nick of time and opportunity so long expected and so passionately desired by them of meer purpose for that very Apostolical work So dangerous a thing it is reputed at Rome for the Subjects to give their natural Prince any pledge of their Faith which the Pope cannot undo It is no less criminal in the esteem of that Court than if the triple Crown it self and Keys of Heaven and Peter's Chair i. e. all the authority of the Holy See and all the very essentials of the Papacy were invaded by it In opposition to this no less persecuted than Loyal Instrument there was after four years consultation another of quite different words matter ends and consequently fortune set up by a general consent or rather intrigue of the Adversaries And this other Instrument is it which at least occasionally makes up the other half of the whole subject of this Book as it is that which was the Remonstrance Act of Recognition or Formulary propounded in and approved and subscribed by the National Synod or Congregation of the Roman Catholick Clergy both Secular and Regular Archbishops Bishops Provincials of Orders Vicars General and other Divines of Ireland convened at Dublin and there continued from the eleventh to the twenty fifth of June 1666. Now this being the onely National Synod or Assembly of Roman-Catholick Ecclesiasticks that with licence or connivence from the lawful Magistracy hath been held in any of His Majesties Kingdoms at any time since Queen Mary's Reign Who would have thought but that this singular Grace of His Majesty should have produced and even extorted from them some sutable extraordinary demonstration of their Loyalty It appeared not in their said Remonstrance or Formulary which was so fallacious and delusory so void of any assurance or so much as a promise of that indispensable Obedience and Faith which we owe to His Majesty in all Temporal things according to the Laws of the Land nay which was so void of so much as a promise of such Obedience or Faith in any one Temporal thing whatsoever according to those Laws that it was in effect little less than an open profession of Disloyalty in the Contrivers of it And therefore no wonder it was not censur'd or condemn'd but rather approved and applauded in the Roman Court. And indeed there was no other to be expected from that Synod At the opening whereof it being propounded by a Subscriber of the persecuted Remonstrance and by many clear unanswerable Reasons both urg'd and evinc'd by him that they should desire His Majesties pardon to the Irish Clergy in general for their guilt or the guilt of such of them as were obnoxious to the Laws for their carriage in the late Rebellion and Civil Wars in which even many there present were known to have been deeply engaged the prevailing Party for the rest were silent refus'd not only to ask pardon but so much as to acknowledge that there was any need of it From the acknowledgment of which they were so far as in express words before all publickly to speak and answer That they knew none at all guilty of any Crime for any thing done in the War Nay when His Majesties Lieutenant the Duke of ORMOND at that time Lord Lieutenant General and General Governour of the Kingdom desired this of them at least that they would give His Majesty some assurance of their future obedience or peaceable demeanour upon any contingence either of Deposition or Excommunication by the Pope they refused even this without so much as putting it to the question It was more indeed than they thought fit to undertake for themselves But whatever their thoughts upon that or any other Subject were what I am now to re-mind you is That these two so different Formularies Remonstrances or Acts of Recognition whereof I have given hitherto that brief account which is proper in this place and all the Disputes concerning the former and all the Intrigues of the latter and all the material proper immediate Antecedents Concomitants and Consequents of both are equally the Subject of this present Book And that both of them equally concern although with different Aspects the Roman-Catholick Faith and Professors especially in these Kingdoms the former tending directly yea necessarily to the true advantage of that Religion but the latter by no less necessity of evident reason tending to the great disadvantage nay to the utter destruction of that which you hold dearer than your lives Without peradventure then you are universally so concern'd in the Subject of this Book as I have said and not only you but your Posterity after you and your Priests and your Nobles your Gentry and People your Peace and Quiet Religion Estates Liberty and Lives in short all your happiness and being in this World not to say also in the future If any yet doubt of this I desire him to look back and consider how many thundering Bulls have been issued from the Roman See at several times since the year 1535 some excommunicating others deposing our Princes and others even disposing of their Kingdoms and exposing them as a prey to Forreigners How many dangerous Invasions from abroad and rebellious Insurrections at home How many other treasonable Conspiracies and horrid Plots that followed those Papal sentences And all the ill success of such unchristian bloody undertakings the extinction of so many hundred illustrious Families the desolation of so many thousand ancient Houses the destruction of so many Myriads of poor harmless innocent People on every side and all the unspeakable miseries of the vanquish'd Party the pitiful Groans of surviving Heirs and the penitential Sobs of their dying Fathers for having under pretence of Catholick Religion or for any other cause whatsoever lifted up an armed hand against their Prince or his Laws I am deceived if these be not as many unanswerable demonstrations that you are without any doubt so universally and deeply concern'd in that Subject Whereunto if the penal Laws be added what can be desired more to evince even perceptibly to sense your great concernment therein All Roman-Catholicks universally without any
them as he knowes would otherwise endeavour to do me ill Offices at Rome and render me the more unservicable there and at home after to His Majestie and your Grace I confess My Lord this reservedness argues some weakness or fearfulness in me and yet I cannot help it otherwise at present or until at least we have some further certainty of the Popes silence then we have yet then by assuring your Grace in the faith of a Christian that I will during life observe most religiously in the whole latitude words and sence of it according to the explication of the Author unto me that Protestation And indeed my Lord I can assure your Grace further that it is no new Iudgement nor new affection of my Soul that works in me now but that which I have had these many years past been very much inclined to and which moreover the sufferings of my Predecessors and unfortunate family I am of ever since Henry the 8. for the Crown of England hath in some measure made natural to me For the rest my Lord I have begd of the bearer that he would from time to time let me know your Graces pleasure and Commands and let your Grace know that I will have all those under my charge as farr as I can have power with them to continue their devotions and vowes to God for his most Sacred Majesty and your Grace and that whatever others do I will ever joyn with such as are most devoted to your Grace as My Lord your Graces Most faithful most obsequious and most affectionate Servant Anthony Docharty Minister Provincial of the Franciscans This letter I thought fit to insert because the said late Provincial of the Franciscans for now he is out of his Office carried not himself as to that matter of the Remonstrance either before or after the said letter so candidly and sincerely as would become a person of his place For he notwithstanding all his wariness being suspected by many that he had subscribed and demanded by them whether he had would never own any such thing that I may say no more and thereby rendred his said concurrence altogether unsignificant as to any use could be made thereof His denyal was grounded I suppose hereon that he had not subscribed the individual paper of the original Remonstrance which most others had And peradventure this equivocation had been harmless if it had stayed there or there were not further ill consequences of such equivocation But it was otherwise as his end in both subscribing and denying was for his own private concerns without any regard of the publick and was only to save his own stake with both sides however were a looser Yet this much I will say for him that after this he writt earnestly over Seas to hinder all he could any censures or proceedings against the Subscribers albeit in some of his letters to that purpose he condemned them himself Nor indeed was it agreable to his purpose of dissembing with both parties to do other haveing been himself the principal in sending before the above named Father Iohn Brady to procure censures against the Remonstrance in it self and by consequence against the first publick and printed Subscribers of it And he could not but know that in all likelyhood he had done his worke by that time as indeed he did all he could do However this be I think it not amiss to mind those Franciscan Fathers of that meeting at Multiferum of their unreasonable obstinacy when they remember the following letter of His Grace to the Procuratour as he was on his journey thether which they themselves there did both see and read the Procuratour having so thought fit to answer their pretence of not subscribing on this account That they were not yet satisfied His Majesty or Lord Lieutenant expected any such matter from them but on the contrary were told it was only the Procuratours desire and worke to engage others as deep as himself for his own sake only or to bring himself off the better at Rome by the multitude concurring with him For Mr. Peter Walsh Sir Dublin 26. Jan. 1662. COnsidering how well His Majesty received the Subscriptions to the Protestation presented to him in England I do a little wonder that the example hath not been more readily and frequently followed here than for ought I can hear from you it hath been I have no end in wishing it should than that those of loyal and peaceable dispositions may thereby be distinguished from others for their own advantage Yet any prudent person will believe the Subscribers are more like to find it than the Refusers I desire to know who have already subscribed since your arrival in this Kingdom and who have refused to subscribe And so I rest Your very affectionate Friend Ormonde XLIII Soon after the Procurator had return'd to Dublin from this meeting at Multifernan and the Bishop of Meath Anthony Mageoghegan led wholy by those Fathers had on pretence of the sharpness of the season excused himself by Letter from another meeting with him in his return and when he considered there was no more to be done with or expected from the Generality of the Irish Church-men at least for some time or until they had a general Congeregation by advice of some persons of quality he desired the prime Noblemen and Gentlemen then at Dublin and who had not been at London when the Remonstrance was agitated and subscribed there by such as at that time were there to meet at my Lord Clanriâ—kards of purpose to receive satisfaction in that business whereof there was so much talk amongst all people and to discharge their own duty what ever the Ecclesiasticks did Being met the Lord Birmingham as a most rational and most candid person obiected all he had from others to the Procurator as if all had proceeded from him only But the Earl of Tirconel being present as he was most instrumental both in this meeting and in so many others held at London formerly about the Remonstrance to forward it cleared the Procurator fully for what was done at London declaring that the concurrence of the Nobility and Gentry was wholly and solely their own act originally mentioned by the Earls of Glancarty Carlingford and himself and seconded in very good earnest home by the Earl of Inchiquin some English Catholick Noblemen having of purpose come to their meeting where they declared the joynt approbation of the Catholicks of England and that were the case of the Irish theirs they would most freely and heartily subscribe that very individual Remonstrance with the Preamble and Petition without any change And for the Procurators endeavours to perswade the Clergy in Ireland since his arrival the above Letter of His Grace produced there to my Lord Birmingham and the â—eâ—â— did satisfie them no less fully that he did herein but what he ought and was his Majesties and Lord Lieutenants desire and was both expediâ—â—â— and necessary for all concern'd
the Franciscan Order in Flanders James de Riddere but also the then present Theological Faculty of Louain were really desired no Reason whatever was pretended but even contrary to all Reason expected an absolute and blind submission However the Procurator Father Peter Walsh was very unwilling to give amongst his own Countreymen against himself or Formulary this advantage viz. that upon or notwithstanding such a specious invitation he would not dare abide the test or go I mean to Flanders to confer with his own Superiours and those Divines of Louain who had so briskly censured the same Formulary He apprehended the false and scandalous consecutions would be thence deduced and both loudly and largely in every part of Ireland amongst all sorts of people cryed and spread by the Anti-Remonstrants viz. That had not Walsh and Caron suspected their own strength to justifie the Formulary and consequently the unsoundness of it in point of Catholick Religion they had never bogled at appearing in Flanders Behold the true genuine cause wherefore Father Walsh resolved at any rate or risk whatsoever to go himself alone when Father Caron would not provided nevertheless he had their permission at Court by whose mediation and persuasion he had both obtain'd already the quiet which the Clergy and people of Ireland at that present did enjoy and expected much more yet for the future or had at least His MAJESTIES Licence And indeed partly with the most specious Reasons he could offer and partly also by too much importunity he obtain'd at last the Duke of ORMOND then LORD LIEUTENANT of Ireland his consent But when the matter came to the Lord Chancellor and others it was wholly obstructed yea notwithstanding my Lord Aubigny's joint and earnest sollicitation even for four or five Weeks this Noble man also being as earnest therein as concern'd to oblige thereby the said Internuncio and Court of Rome wherein he was about that time a Pretendant And yet the Lord Chancellor would send no other but this very Lord Aubigny to both Walsh and Caron declaring to them from the King it was His MAJESTIES pleasure and express commands to them they should not stir out of His MAJESTIES Dominions And to Father Walsh moreover That the Chancellor would speak to himself on that Subject Who when he appeared before his Lordship heard himself to some purpose ratled for entertaining any such thought And I remember very well that his Lordship said to me amongst many other things That I was rash and foolish to think they would perform any faith or promise with me yea notwithstanding I had all the safe Conducts I could wish both de Vecchiis's and Carracens's too the Spanish Governour then That he was certain had they now once more got me into their hands they would together with the Remonstrance and all the consequents of it call to mind what I had formerly acted against the Nuncio Rinuccini and therefore would never let me return nor And that sure I could not by any promise expect more safety than Huss did from the Emperour's Pass-port nor surely from the present Ministers of the Court of Rome more honesty or sincerity than he by a fiery and deadly experience found in the Council of Constance Lastly his conclusion was a repetition of His MAJESTIES former Commands to me by my Lord Aubigny Then which I must confess as I also before God protest it to be true I do not remember that in my life I received any Command with more regret so earnestly desirous was I then to appear in Flanders and confer with those Divines of Louain who so temerariously Censured the Formulary and Subscribers of it And so troubled I was with the apprehension of what Lyes and Scandals my Adversaries would derive from my not going thither Which and to speak also plainly my further sense under my own hand 's writing to the said Internuncio de Vecchiis was the reason I writ him immediately in Latin this following Letter being an exact Translation of the Latin My Lord HAving understood from Father Gearnon what your Lordship was pleased either to communicate or object or otherwise to give him in charge to be told to Father Caron and me of your Lordships desire of seeing us the said Caron and Walsh at Brussels to the end we might confer with our Superiours and other Divines about the Form of the late Protestation and having withall soon after seen your most civil Letter to the same Father Caron inviting him particularly to Brussels and inviting him as well for the foresaid end as for that other also of removing the difficulties that hinder as yet his being instituted Commissary Visitator of the Province of Ireland which difficulties your Lordship sayes have their total rise from the said Form as the onely Rock of Scandal I resolved presently to use my utmost endeavours for satisfying your Lordships desire and that your most civil invitation should not be in vain And therefore have these five whole Weeks past minded onely a Licence or Permission to depart as my Lord Aubigny can witness and likewise press'd it very earnestly as well with the Vice-Roy of Ireland as with the Chancellor of England For without their privity and good will and much less without His MAJESTIES consent or permission it could not be lawful for us or either of us in this or like case to depart Nor would even your Lordship if I be not much deceived think it expedient we should whereas any kind of dispute conference or even change either in the sense or words of that Form would be to no purpose without their previous consent who must of necessity be assured by that very Form or some other such Catholick and just I mean and which they shall think sufficient to their own purpose of the future Loyalty of Subjects in matters relating to the temporal peace of the Kingdom and who if they be not so assured will give no hopes at all of that liberty for the Clergy or people of Ireland which these poor Creatures do with so much longing expect And indeed the most excellent Vice-Roy assented first But when the matter was broke to the KING and Chancellor it seemed of greater moment than to be so soon determined Wherefore having further till the first of February expected His MAJESTIES Royal Pleasure being at last sent for by my Lord Chancellor and appearing at his house after much debate to and fro near two whole hours partly upon your Lordships Letter to Father Caron which the Chancellor then was pleased to hear me read and partly upon other papers and passages relating to the subject of that your Letter I nevertheless heard to my very great grief even there and then my self present and from his own very mouth pronounced That neither Caron nor I nor any other should go on such an Errand or depart for any such end because this were as much as to subject a thing in it self wholly certain and the regal and
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
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
indeed I repented to have had any Communion with them especially the Primat 1. Because that whatever lye T.T. told me before yet he I mean the Primat brag'd that being offer'd to be admitted and introduced at Bruxels to kiss the Kings hand he plainly refused it nor ever did nor would hereafter at any time either kiss his hand or otherwise be presented to Him 2. That in the hearing of many whereof my self was one and at a publick treat or dinner he was even so carelesly passionate as to boast also That he had never been friend or well-willer to any of the four naming the King and his Two Brothers with the Marquess of Ormond nor would ever be 3. That to ingratiate himself and his party with Thurlo and the young Protector and to obtain favours and graces for them even with the exclusion of the Royal Party of the Irish Catholicks he amongst other arguments alledged That to the Contrivances Arms and Divisions made by Owen O Neil the State of England owed their present Possession of Ireland and that the same party of the Irish Natives ought to be not only on that account favour'd and trusted but because also they never had affection for the King or his Family 4. Finally that he writ Precepts under his Seal to all his Province of Ardmagh to pray for the health prosperity and establishment of the said Protector and State and Government of England and Ireland as they were then To which four I might have added that N. B. as soon as he understood of the Communication betwixt his other two Associats and me advised them presently to have me secured by a Warrant from Thurlo and that T.T. on my reasoning with himself in some case till I put him into passion threatned to my face and in great fury too before a certain Lady he would have me speedily fast enough by the heels Yet not this but the former four made me at last venture to acquaint my self with one of the Council of State and so contrive their sudden dismiss out of England back to France without other harm done them but that of an injunction to be immediatly gone at their peril And forc'd so away to France they were all three suddenly when they least expected it In France the Primat stays not but passes over thence immediately by Sea to Ireland and there accosts or sends to his old friends Collonel Theophilus Jones and his Brother Doctor Jones the Protestant Bishop of Clogher roames up and down in several Provinces of that Kingdome and so and by what else I know not the particulars gives occasion to those that knew him well to inform against him to the English Court in the Lowcountries then in the year 1659. and beginning of 1660 that he was endeavouring all he could to animate the Fanaticks and some other Protestants in Ireland against the coming in or admitting of the King to return or be restored at all and that he promised them to that end great assistance from or a conjunction of the stronger party of the Roman Catholick Irish Immediatly before His Majesties departure out of Holland for England Don Stephano de Gamarro then Spanish Embassador with the States is spoken to desiring his Excellency to inform the Court of Rome 1. of such a Bishop in Ireland who if taken must suffer by the Law 2. That His Majesty desired not to be put to the stress of signing the Warrant of his Execution 3. And therefore that even by commands from Rome he should be revoked immediatly out of Ireland Next Winter after the Kings happy Restauration and immediatly also after my Procuratorium signâ—d by the same Prelat in the first place and sent to me from Ireland I received from some in England a Duplicat of Commands sent from Rome to him for retiring on sight Upon receipt of these in Ireland he passes thence again to France writes to me from Roan a pittiful Letter both denying flatly the last Accusation to have been true and complaining that himself alone amongst the whole Irish Nation should be forc'd to mourn in those days of general Jubilee for His Majesties Restauration and therefore prays my Intercession for His Majesties unparallelâ—d Clemency and Mercy I returned him the most comfortable answer I could but withal advising him to patience for three years more as also assuring him that by that time I hoped my intercession for him should be effectual To Rome he goes writes to me once or twice from thence see Sect. 6. pag. 14. of the First Part and stays there till the beginning of the year 1665. when he returns back to France and writes and minds me of my promise And after some few exchanges more of Letters at last and according to my advice for addressing himself by Letter to his Grace the Duke of Ormond then Lord Lieutenant of Ireland he sent to me for the said Duke this following Letter of extraordinary great Repentance Submission and Prayer of Pardon from His Majesties mercy To his Excellency the Duke of ORMOND Lord Lieutenant General and General Governour of His Majesties Kingdom of IRELAND May it please your Excellency I Am the Publican standing a far off not daring to lift up mine eyes to the Heavens and your Grace but knocking my Breast humbly pray your Excellency be pleased to be favourable to me and make me partaker of His Majesties unparalle'ld mercies promising in the sight of God and his Angels that I will endeavour to comply in all points with his Soveraign Majesties most gracious Will and your Excellencies commands as far as shall become a modest faithful and thankful Subject If otherwise who am I but a Worm the reproach of Mankind the vilitie of the People a dead Dog a Flea And yet my gracious Lord Your Excellencies Most humble Servant Edmund Ardmach Paris Aug. 31. 1665. It is only to make the Reader understand first this Letter next some other passages hereafter which relate to a man of so great dignity in the Church and lastly what merits and considerations are most prevalent at Rome to procure the greatest Ecclesiastical preferments within His Majesties Dominions that I have given so large and particular account of this Prelate and not any hatred to or disesteem of his person or want of due veneration to his memory now that he is departed this life and I hope in a place of happiness and glory before this time I never had any private difference or quarrel with him in my life nor he with me for ought I know nay I found alwayes as some esteem and affection also in him for me so in my self I am sure no less to serve him where I could both unfeignedly and affectionately as I did all along for many years in all occasions And yet until the year 1669. a little before his death in France and his very last Letter thence to me I never knew of his having obliged me so much as he did hindring the
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
strong motives and moral certainties produced before in our Answer to the second Querie and which we may have to persuade us that the Supreme Council who are chiefly aimed at in this business had no such evil intentions Which together with all hitherto said being duly pondered by them who now seem so adverse to us in opinion but by them discharged a little of passion retyring into their Souls and looking with an eye of indifferency upon this difference we doubt not but they will acknowledge before God the truth of our Assertions and with how little reason but great hazard of eternal salvation they disobey the Commands of the Supreme Council on pretence of the present proceedings of the Lord Nuncio and we hope as we most heartily desire with all our Souls that they or at least such of them as have an affection to Loyalty and a true zeal of Gods cause will by their unfeigned and repentant submission to the Supreme Authority established by the Kingdom make happy these Answers labour'd as the shortness of time did permit for their conversion and satisfaction of all good Patriots by DAVID Bishop of OSSORY F John Roe Provincial of the Excal Carmelites Nicholas Taylor Doctor of Divinity William Shergoli Professor of Divinity Prebend of Houth and Vic. For. of Fingal Fr John Barnwall Lector of Divinity Fa Simon Wafer Lector of Divinity F Peter Walsh Lector of Divinity Luke Cowley Archdeacon of Ossory and Protonotary Apostolick Laurence Archbold Vic. For. in the Deaneries of Brea Tawney and Glandalagh F Christopher Plunket Guardian of St. Francis Convent in Dublin Fa John Dormer Guardian of St. Francis 's Order at Castle-dermot Fr Bonaventure Fitz-Gerald Guardian of Kildare F Laurence Matthews Preses of Carmel Kilken F Laur. a sancto Bernardo Paul Nash Prebend John Shee Prebend of Main James Sedgrave FINIS THE FIRST APPENDIX CONTAINING Some of those PUBLICK Instruments related unto PARTLY IN THE QUERIES AND PARTLY In several places of the precedent WORK or in the Four Treatises of this FIRST TO ME. VIZ. I. The Oath of Association or that which was the essential tye of the Roman-Catholick Confederates of Ireland as such according to that Form wherein it was taken or renewed in the year 1644. II. The Lord Nuncio's Excommunication and Interdict by him and his Fellow Delegates or Sub-Delegates fulminated on the 27th of May 1648. against the Adherers to the Cessation made with Inchiquin III. The Supreme Councils Appeal interposed on the 31 of May the same year to His Holiness Pope Innocent X. from the said Censures Nuncio and His Fellow Delegates c. IV. The Articles of the Second Peace or of that on the 27th of the following January same year 1648. according to the old English computation but the 7th of February 1649. according to the new Roman stile concluded betwixt His Majesty CHARLES I. and the Roman-Catholick Confederates of Ireland by James Marquess of Ormond Lord Lieutenant of Ireland and Special Commissioner for His Majesty in treating and concluding that Peace V. The Declaration of the Archbishops Bishops and other Irish Prelates at Jamestown 12 Aug. 1650. against the said Marquess Lord Lieutenant General and General Governour of Ireland wherein they assume to themselves the Regal Power restore again the Confederacy declare the said Marquess devested of all power c. VI. The Excommunication of the same date fulminated by the same Irish Archbishops Bishops and others against all persons whatsoever obeying any more or at any time thenceforth the said Marquess however the King 's Lieutenant Printed in the Year M.DC.LXXIII The Preamble to the Oath of Association WHEREAS the Roman-Catholicks of this Kingdom of Ireland have been enforced to take Arms for the necessary defence and preservation as well of their Religion plotted and by many foul practices endeavoured to be quite suppressed by the Puritan Faction as likewise of their Lives Liberties and Estates and also for the defence and safeguard of His Majesties Regal Power just Prerogatives Honour State and Rights invaded upon and for that it is requisite That there should be an unanimous Consent and real Union between all the Catholicks of this Realm to maintain the Premisses and strengthen them against their Adversaries It is thought fit by them That they and whosoever shall adhere unto their Party as a Confederate should for the better assurance of their adhering fidelity and constancy to the Publick Cause take the ensuing Oath The Oath of Association I A. B. do profess swear and protest before God and his Saints and Holy Angels That I will during life bear true Faith and Allegiance to my Sovereign Lord CHARLES by the Grace of God King of Great Britain France and Ireland and to His Heirs and lawful Successors and that I will to my power during my life defend uphold and maintain all His and their just Prerogatives Estates and Rights the power and priviledge of the Parliament of this Realm the fundamental Laws of Ireland the free exercise of the Roman-Catholick Faith and Religion throughout all this Land and the Lives just Liberties Possessions Estates and Rights of all those that have taken or shall take this Oath and perform the Contents thereof And that I will obey and ratifie all the Orders and Decrees made and to be made by the Supreme Council of the Confederate Catholicks of this Kingdom concerning the said Publick Cause And that I will not seek directly or indirectly any Pardon or Protection for any Act done or to be done touching the General Cause without the consent of the major part of the said Council And that I will not directly or indirectly do any Act or Acts that shall prejudice the said Cause but will to the hazard of my Life and Estate assist prosecute and maintain the same So help me God and his Holy Gospel By the General Assembly of the Confederate Catholicks of Ireland Kilkenny July 26. 1644. Upon full debate this day in open Court Assembly it is unanimously declared by the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Knights and Burgesses of this House That the Oath of Association as it is already penned of Record in this House and taken by the Confederate Catholicks is full and binding without addition of any other words thereunto And it is ordered That any person or persons whatsoever who have taken or hereafter shall take the said Oath of Association and hath or shall declare by word or actions or by persuasions of others That the said Oath or any Branch thereof doth or may admit any equivocation or mental reservation if any such person or persons be shall be deemed a breaker of his and their Oath respectively and adverse to the General Cause and as a Delinquent or Delinquents for such offence shall be punished And it is further ordered That the several Ordinaries shall take special care that the Parish-Priests within their respective Diocesses shall publish and declare That any person or persons who hath or shall take
hisce subscripsimus Kilkenniae 28 Januarii 1648. Jo Archiepiscopus Tuamen Fran Aladen Ed Limericensis THE ARTICLES OF PEACE Made and Concluded by his Excellency JAMES LORD Marquess of Ormond LORD LIEUTENANT GENERAL AND General Governour of His Majesties Kingdom of Ireland on the behalf of His Majesty WITH THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY of the Roman-Catholicks of the said Kingdom on the behalf of His Majesties Roman-Catholick Subjects of the same Re-printed in the Year M.DC.LXXIII BY THE LORD LIEVTENANT GENERAL AND General Governour Of the Kingdom of IRELAND ORMONDE VVHEREAS Articles of Peace are made concluded accorded and agreed upon by and between Vs JAMES Lord Marquess of Ormond Lord Lieutenant General and General Governour of His Majesties Kingdom of Ireland by vertue of the Authority wherewith We are entrusted for and on the behalf of His Most Excellent Majesty of the one part and the General Assembly of the Roman-Catholicks of the said Kingdom for and on the behalf of His Majesties Roman-Catholick Subjects of the same on the other part A true Copy of which Articles of Peace is hereunto annexed We the Lord Lieutenant do by this Proclamation in His Majesties Name publish the same and do in His Majesties Name strictly charge and command all His Majesties Subjects and all others inhabiting or residing within His Majesties said Kingdom of Ireland to take notice thereof and to render due Obedience to the same in all the parts thereof And as His Majesty hath been induced to this Peace out of a deep sense of the miseries and calamities brought upon this His Kingdom and People and out of a hope conceived by His Majesty that it may prevent the further effusion of His Subjects Blood redeem them out of all the miseries and calamities under which they now suffer restore them to all quietness and happiness under His Majesties most gracious Government deliver the Kingdom in general from those Slaughters Depredations Rapines and Spoils which alwayes accompany a War encourage the Subjects and others with comfort to betake themselves to Trade Traffick Commerce Manufacture and all other things which uninterrupted may increase the wealth and strength of the Kingdom beget in all His Majesties Subjects of this Kingdom a perfect unity amongst themselves after the too long continued division amongst them So His Majesty assures Himself that all His Subjects of this His Kingdom duly considering the great and inestimable benefits which they may find in this Peace will with all duty render due Obedience thereunto And We in His Majesties Name do hereby declare That all persons so rendring due Obedience to the said Peace shall be protected cherished countenanced and supported by His Majesty and His Royal Authority according to the true intent and meaning of the said Articles of Peace Given at Our Castle of Kilkenny the Seventeenth day of January 1648. GOD SAVE THE KING ARTICLES of Peace made concluded accorded and agreed upon by and between his Excellency JAMES Lord Marquess of Ormond Lord Lieutenant General and General Governour of His Majesties Kingdom of Ireland for and on the behalf of His Most Excellent Majesty by vertue of the Authority wherewith the said Lord Lieutenant is intrusted on the one part And the GEMERAL ASSEMBLY of the Roman Catholicks of the said Kingdom for and on the behalf of His Majesties Roman Catholick Subjects of the same on the other part HIS Majesties Roman Catholick Subjects as thereunto bound by Allegiance Duty and Nature do most humbly and freely acknowledge and recognize their Sovereign Lord King Charles to be lawful and undoubted King of this Kingdom of Ireland and other His Highness Realms and Dominions And His Majesties said Roman Catholick Subjects apprehending with a deep sense the sad condition whereunto His Majesty is reduced as a further humble Testimony of their Loyalty do declare That they and their Posterity for ever to the uttermost of their power even to the expence of their blood and fortunes will maintain and uphold His Majesty His Heirs and lawful Successors their Rights Prerogatives Government and Authority and thereunto freely and heartily will render all due obedience OF which faithful and loyal Recognition and Declaration so seasonably made by the said Roman Catholicks His Majesty is graciously pleased to accept and accordingly to own them his loyal and dutiful Subjects and is further graciously pleased to extend unto them the following graces and securities I. IMprimis It is concluded accorded and agreed upon by and betweeen the said Lord Lieutenant for and on the behalf of His most Excellent Majesty and the said General Assembly for and on the behalf of the said Roman Catholick Subjects And His Majesty is graciously pleased that it shall be Enacted by Act to be past in the next Parliament to be held in this Kingdom That all and every the Professors of the Roman Catholick Religion within the said Kingdom shall be free and exempt from all Mulcts Penalties Restraints and Inhibitions that are or may be imposed upon them by any Law Statute Usage or Custom whatsoever for or concerning the free exercise of the Roman Catholick Religion And that it shall be likewise Enacted That the said Roman Catholicks or any of them shall not be questioned or molested in their Persons Goods or Estates for any matter or cause whatsoever for concerning or by reason of the free exercise of their Religion by vertue of any Power Authority Statute Law or Usage whatsoever And that it shall be further Enacted That no Roman Catholick in this Kingdom shall be compelled to exercise any Religion Form of Devotion or Divine Service other than such as shall be agreeable to their Conscience and that they shall not be prejudiced or molested in their Persons Goods or Estates for not observing using or hearing the Book of Common Prayer or any other Form of Devotion or Divine Service by vertue or colour of any Statute made in the second year of Queen Elizabeth or by vertue or colour of any other Law Declaration of Law Statute Custom or Usage whatsoever made or declared to be made or declared And that it shall be further Enacted That the Professors of the Roman Catholick Religion or any of them be not bound or obliged to take the Oath commonly called the Oath of Supremacy expressed in the Statute of Secundo Eliz. cap. 10. or in any other Statute or Statutes and that the said Oath shall not be tendred to them and that the refusal of the said Oath shall not redound to the prejudice of them or any of them they taking the Oath of Allegiance in haec verba viz. I A. B. do truly acknowledge profess testifie and declare in my Conscience before God and the World That our Sovereign Lord King CHARLES is lawful and rightful King of this Realm and of other His Majesties Dominions and Countries and I will bear Faith and true Allegiance to His Majesty His Heirs and Successors and Him and Them will defend to the uttermost of my
Roman-Catholicks the 17th day of January 1648 and in the 24th year of the Reign of Our Sovereign Lord CHARLES by the Grace of God King of Great Britain France and Ireland c. ORMONDE The DECLARATION intituled thus A Declaration Of the Archbishops and other Prelates and Dignitaries of the Secular and Regular Clergy of the Kingdom of Ireland AGAINST The continuance of His MAJESTIES Authority in the person of the Marquess of ORMOND Lord Lieutenant of Ireland for the misgovernment of the Subject the ill Conduct of His MAJESTIES Army and the violation of the Articles of Peace Dated at Jamestown in the Convent of the Fryers Minors August 12. 1650. THE Catholick People of Ireland in the year 1641. forced to take up Arms for the defence of Holy Religion their Lives and Liberties the Parliament of England having taken a resolution to extinguish the Catholick Faith and pluck up the Nation root and branch a powerful Army being prepared and designed to execute their black rage and cruel intention made a Peace and published the same the 17th of January 1648 with James Lord Marquess of Ormond Commissioner to that effect from His Majesty or from His Royal Queen and Son Prince of Wales now CHARLES II. hereby manifesting their Loyal thoughts to Royal Authority This Peace or Pacification being consented to by the Confederate Catholicks when His Majesty was in restraint and neither He nor His Queen or Prince of Wales in condition to send any supply or relief to them when also the said Confederate Catholicks could have agreed with the Parliament of England upon as good or better conditions for Religion and the Lives Liberties and Estates of the People than were obtained by the above Pacification and thereby freed themselves from the danger of any Invasion or War to be made upon them by the Power of England where notwithstanding the Pacification with His Majesty they were to dispute and fight with their and his Enemies in the Three Kingdoms Let the World judge if this be not an undeniable Argument of Loyalty This Peace being so concluded the Catholick Confederates ran sincerely and chearfully under His MAJESTIES Authority in the person of the said Marquess of Ormond Lord Lieutenant of Ireland plentifully providing vast sums of Monies well nigh half a Million of English pounds besides several Magazines of Corn with a fair Train of Artillery great quantity of Powder Match Ammunition with other Materials for War After his Excellency the said Lord Lieutenant frustrating the expectation the Nation had of his Fidelity Gallantry and Ability became the Author of almost losing the whole Kingdom to God King and Natives which he began by violating the Peace in many parts thereof as may be clearly evidenced and made good to the World I. FIrst The foresaid Catholicks having furnished his Excellency with the aforesaid Sum of Money which was sufficient to make up the Army of Fifteen thousand Foot and Two thousand five hundred Horse agreed upon by the Peace for the preservation of the Catholick Religion our Sovereigns interest and the Nation his Excellency gave Patents of Colonels and other Commanders over and above the party under the Lord Baron of Inchiquin to Protestants and upon them consumed the substance of the Kingdom who most of them afterwards betrayed or deserted us II. That the Holds and Ports of Munster as Cork Youghal Kingsale c. were put in the hands of faithless men of the Lord of Inchiquin's Party that betrayed these places to the Enemy to the utter endangering of the KING's interest in the whole Kingdom This good service they did His MAJESTY after soaking up the sweet and substance of His Catholick Subjects of Munster where it is remarkable That upon making the Peace his Excellency would no way allow His Loyal Catholick Subjects of Cork Youghal Kingsale and other Garrisons to return to their own Homes or Houses III. Catholick Commanders instanced by the Commissioners of Trust according to the Pacification and hereupon by his Excellencies Commission receiving their Commands in the Army as Colonel Patrick Purcel Major General of the Army and Colonel Peirce Fitz-Gerald alias Mr. Thomas Commissary of the Horse were removed without the consent of the said Commissioners and by no demerit of the Gentlemen and the said places that of Major General given to Daniel O Neil Esq a Protestant and that of Commissary of the Horse to Sir William Vaughan Knight and after the said Sir William â—s death to Sir Thomas Armstrong Knight both Protestants IV. A Judicature and legal way of administring Justice promised by the Articles of Peace was not performed but all process and proceedings done by Paper Petitions and thereby private Clerks and other corrupt Ministers inrich't the Subject ruined and no Justice done V. The Navigation the great support of Ireland quite beaten down his Excellency disheartning the Adventurers Undertakers and Owners as Captain Antonio and others favouring Hollanders and other Aliens by reversing of Judgments legally given and definitively concluded before his Commissioners Authority By which depressing of Maritime affairs and not providing for an orderly and good Tribunal of Admiralty we have hardly a Bottom left to transmit a Letter to His Majesty or any other Prince VI. The Church of Cloine in our possession at the time of making the Peace violently taken from us by the Lord of Inchiquin contrary to the Articles of Peace no Justice nor redress was made upon Application or Complaint VII That Oblations Book monies Interments and other Obventions in the Counties of Cork Waterford and Kerry were taken from the Catholick Priests and Pastors by the Ministers without any redress or restitution VIII That the Catholick Subjects of Munster lived in slavery under the Presidency of the Lord of Inchiquin these being their Judges that before were their Enemies and none of the Catholick Nobility or Gentry admitted to be of the Tribunal IX The Conduct of the Army was improvident and unfortunate Nothing hapned in Christianity more shameful than the disaster at Rathmines near Dublin where his Excellency as it seemed to ancient Travellers and men of experience who viewed all kept rather a Mart of Wares a Tribunal of Pleadings or a great Inne of Play Drinking and Pleasure than a well ordered Camp of Souldiers Droghedagh unrelieved was lost by storm with much bloodshed and the loss of the flower of Leinster Wexford lost much by the unskilfulness of a Governour a young man vain and unadvised Ross given up and that by his Excellencies order without any dispute by Colonel Luke Taffe having within near upon 2500 Souldiers desirous to fight After that the Enemy make a Bridge over the River of Ross a wonder to all men and understood by no man without any let or interruption our Forces being within Seven or eight Miles to the place where 200 Musqueteers at Rossberkine being timely ordered had interrupted this stupendious Bridge and made the Enemy weary of the Town Carrig being betrayed by the
Protestants Warde there our Army afterwards appearing before the place the Souldiers were commanded to fight against the Walls and armed men without great Guns Ladders Petards Shovels Spades Pickaxes or other necessaries there being kill'd upon the place above 500 Souldiers valiantly fighting Yet near Thomas-town our Souldiers being of tryed Foot two to one and well resolved were forbidden to fight in the open Field having advantage of ground against the Enemy to the utter disheartning of the Souldiers and People After this the Enemy came like a deluge upon Calan Featbard Cashel Killmalock and other Corporations within the Provinces of Leinster and Munster and the Countrey about rendred Tributary Then followed the taking of Laghlin and Kilkenny then that of Clonmel where the Enemy met with gallantry loss and resistance Lastly Ticrohan and Catharlough two great pillars of Leinster shaken down that of Ticrohan to speak nothing for the present of all other places was given up by orders Waterford block't in is in a sad condition Dunkannon the key of the Kingdom unrelieved since the first of December is like to be given up and lost X. That the Prelates after the numerous Congregation at Cloanmacnoise where they made Declarations for the Kings great advantage after printed and after many other laborious meetings and consultations with the expressions of their sincerity and earnestness were not allowed by his Excellency to have employed their power and best diligence towards advancing the Kings interest but rather suspected and blamed as may appear by his own Letter to the Prelates then at Jamestown written August 2d And words were heard to fall from him dangerous as to the persons of some Prelates XI That his Excellency represented to His Majesty some parts of this Kingdom disobedient which absolutely deny any such disobedience by them committed and thereby procured from His MAJESTY a Letter to withdraw his own person and the Royal Authority if such disobediences were multiplied and to leave the people without the benefit of the Peace This was the reward his Excellency out of his envy to a Catholick Loyal Nation prepared for our Loyalty and Obedience sealed by the shedding of our blood and the loss of our substance XII That his Excellency and the Lord of Inchiquin when enemies to the Catholicks being very active in unnatural executions against us and shedding the blood of poor Priests and Churchmen have shewed little of action since this Peace but for many months kept themselves in Connaught and Thumond where no danger or the Enemy appeared spending their time as most men observed in play pleasure and great merriment while the other parts of the Kingdom were bleeding under the Sword of the Enemy This was no great argument of sense or grief in them to see a Kingdom lost to His MAJESTY XIII That his Excellency when prospering put no trust of places taken in into the hands of Catholicks as that of Droghedagh Dundalk Trim c. and by this his diffidence in Catholicks and by other his actions and expressions the Catholick Army had no heart to fight or to be under his command and feared greatly if he had mastered the Enemy and with them the Commissioners of Trust or the greater part of them and many Thousands of the Kingdom also feared he would have brought the Catholick Subjects and their Religion to the old slavery XIV We will not speak of many Corruptions and Abuses as passing of a Custodium upon the Abby of Killbegaine worth in past years to the Confederates well nigh 400 l. per annum to Secretary Lane for 40 l. or thereabouts per annum nor of many other such like to Daniel O Neil and others at an under-value to the great prejudice of the Publick XV. We do also notifie to the Catholicks of the Kingdom most of the above Grievances and breaches of the Peace being delivered to the Commissioners of Trust in February last that the Clergy and Laity receiving redress or justice the discontent of the Subject might be removed no amendment appeared after eight months effluxed but the evil still continued that occasioned the ruine of the Nation And we also protest to the whole World having done our best we have no power to remove the jealousies and fears of the People Besides the above Injuries and violation of the Articles of the Peace against Religion the Kings interest and the Nation nothing appearing before the eyes of the People but desolation waste burning and the destruction of the Kingdom three parts of four thereof being come under contribution to the Enemy Cities Towns and strong holds taken from them Altars pulled down Churches lost Priests killed and banished Sacraments and Sacrifices and all things holy profaned and almost utterly extinguished Armies and great numbers of Souldiers by them maintained and the Enemy not fought withall those that would fight for them born down and those that would betray them cherished and advanced finally no visible Army or defence appearing they are come to despair of recovering what is lost or defending what they hold and some inclining for safety of their lives and estates do compound with the Parliament persuading themselves no safety can be to any living under the Government of the LORD LIEUTENANT attended by fate and disaster For prevention of these evils and that the Kingdom may not be utterly lost to His MAJESTY and His Catholick Subjects this Congregation of Archbishops Bishops and other Prelates and Dignitaries of both Clergies of this Kingdom found our selves bound in Conscience after great deliberation to declare against the continuance of His Majesties Authority in the person of the said Lord Marquess of Ormond premitting this Protestation to the world That we had never come to such Declaration but that we and the People of this Kingdom generally despair of the Kingdoms recovery under his Government as hereby we do declare as well in our own names and behalf as in the names and behalf of the rest of the Catholicks of this Kingdom against him the said Marquess of Ormond having by his misgovernment ill Conduct of His Majesties Army and the breach of Publick Faith with the People in several particulars of the Articles of the Peace rendered himself uncapable of continuing that great Trust any longer being questionable before His Majesty for the said injuries and ill Government to which effect we will join with other members of this Kingdom in drawing a Charge against him and we hereby manifest to the People they are no longer obliged to obey the Orders and Commands of the said Lord Marquess of Ormond but are until a General Assembly of the Nation can be conveniently called together unanimously to serve against the common Enemy for the defence of the Catholick Religion His Majesties interest their Liberties Lives and Fortunes in pursuance of the Oath of Association and to observe and obey in the mean time the form of Government the said Congregation shall prescribe until it be otherwise ordered by an
all that should feed help or adhere to Us are set down in their Declaration * See before page 65. in the former Appendix of Instruments where you have this Declaration at length both Preamble and Fifteen Articles thereof entirely and consequently without interposition of any other matter After which also you have there pag. 70. the Excommunication before mentioned of the 12th of August intituled A Declaration of the Archbishops Bishops and other Prelates and Dignitaries of the Regular and Secular Clergy of the Kingdom of Ireland against the continuance of His Majesties authority in the Marquess of Ormond Lord Lieutenant of Ireland for the misgovernment of the Subject and the ill conduct of His Majesties Army and the violation of the Articles of Peace at Jamestown in the Convent of the Friers Minors the 12th of August 1650. That in this Title they assume unto themselves a power to declare against the continuance of His Majesties authority where he hath placed it needs no further proof than the reading of it But whence they derive their pretence to this power We find not any where expressed nor by whom they are constituted Judges of the misgovernment of the People the ill conduct of His Majesties Army or of the violation of the Articles of Peace For the misgovernment of the People and ill conduct of His Majesties Army We acknowledge no earthly competent Judge of Us but His Majesty and the established Laws And for the violation of the Articles of Peace by the consent even of all those Bishops unless there be gotten amongst them some that opposed the Peace and joined with those that assisted the English Rebels as long as they could give them hire the trust of looking to the observance of the Articles of Peace was reposed by the General Assembly with whom the Peace was concluded in Thomas Lord Viscount Dillon of Costelloe Lord President of Connaught Donnogh Lord Viscount Muskery Francis Lord Baron of Athunry Alexander mac Donnel Esq Sir Lucas Dillon Knight Sir Nicholas Plunket Knight Sir Richard Barnewall Baronet Geoffery Browne Donnogh O Callaghane Tirlagh O Neil Miles Reilly and Dr. Gerald Fennel Esquires as appears by the said Articles Whereby we suppose it is clear That as the Bishops have arrogated to themselves an unwarranted power to declare against the continuance of His Majesties authority where he hath placed it and to be Our Judges in the government of the People and conduct of the Army wherein VVe doubt whether their skill be answerable to their desire to try it so have they as unwarrantably taken upon them to judge what is or is not a violation of the Articles of Peace and in all they have endeavoured to invade and usurp both upon King and People bereaving the one of Royalty and the other of Freedom Now supposing they were the Monarchs they would be let the grounds of their Excommunication set forth in all that VVe have seen be duly examined and it will be found that their sentence is most unjust So that as their Tribunal is usurped their Judgment is erroneous VVe begin with the Preamble of the Declaration in these words Preamble of the Declaration THE Catholick People of Ireland in the year 1641. forced to take up Arms for the defence of Holy Religion their Lives and Liberties the Parliament of England having taken a resolution to extinguish the Catholick Faith and pluck up the Nation root and branch a powerful Army being prepared and designed to execute their black rage and cruel intention made a Peace and published the same 17th Jan. 1648 with James Lord Marquess of Ormond Commissioner to that effect from His Majesty or from His Royal Queen and Son Prince of Wales now Charles the Second thereby manifesting their Loyal thoughts to Royal Authority This Peace or Pacification being consented to by the Confederate Catholicks when His Majesty was in restraint and neither He or His Queen or the Prince of Wales in condition to send any supplies or relief to them when also the said Confederate Catholicks could have agreed with the Parliament of England upon as good or better conditions for Religion and the Lives Liberties and Estates of the People than were by the above Pacification obtained and thereby free themselves from the danger of any Invasion or War to be made upon them by the power of England where notwithstanding the Pacification with His Majesty they were to dispute and fight with their and His Enemies in the Three Kingdoms Let the world â—udge if this be not an undeniable argument of Loyalty The Peace being so concluded the Catholick Confederates came sincerely and chearfully under His Majesties authority in the person of the said Marquess of Ormond Lord Lieutenant of Ireland plentifully providing vast Sums of monies well nigh half a Million of English pounds besides several Magazines of Corn with a fair Train of Artillery great quantity of Powder Match Ammunition with other materials for War After His Excellency the Lord Lieutenant frustrating the expectation the Nation had of his Fidelity Gallantry and Ability became the Author of almost losing the whole Kingdom to God King and Nation Which he began by violating the Peace in many parts thereof as may be clearly evidenced and made good to the world ANSWER Concerning their motives of taking up Arms in the year 1641 We shall say nothing But since they begin so high with their Narrative as the year 1641 it will not be amiss to mind them That betwixt that and the year 1648 there was by Authority from His Majesty and Our Ministration several Cessations and at length a Peace concluded with the Confederate Roman-Catholicks in the year 1646 which Peace was shamefully and perfidiously violated by the instigation and contrivement of most part of these Archbishops Bishops Prelates and others of the Secular and Regular Clergy and that not in slight and strained particulars such as We are now charged with by them but by coming with Two powerful Armies before the City of Dublin upon no provocation from Us unless they esteemed the continuance of a Cessation for about Three years with them and the bringing them a Peace to their own doors such a provocation as deserved their bending their united power against Us leaving other parts that neither had nor would have Peace or Cessation with them unmolested and at liberty to waste their quarters whil'st they devoured Ours and sought Our ruine This as a particular blotting their name and memory with the everlasting infamy of Perfidy Ingratitude and undeniable Disloyalty they have reason to leap over in their Preamble least they should awaken the Curses of those multitudes of People who being seduced into so horrid a violation of Publick Faith by their impious allurements and hellish Excommunications are thereby become desolate Widows helpless Orphans and miserable Exiles from the place of their birth and sustenance True it is That His late Majesty and His now Majesty then Prince of Wales overcoming
thorough the good affection to His Majesty of divers Officers and Souldiers rather than forced by Siege or otherwise with some of whom We conceived it fit to leave the charge thereof What actions or expressions of Ours they were that disheartned the Roman-Catholicks to fight or be under Our Command is not here set down So that VVe can no otherwise answer to this than that VVe never did any such action or let fall any such expression but were indifferent in Our actions and expressions of civility and respect to all the Officers of the Army VVhat these Catholicks and many Thousands of the People with the Commissioners of Trust or the greater part of them might Fear if We had mastered the Kingdom VVe are not to answer for But if they feared VVe would in case We had mastered the Kingdom have infringed any of the Articles of Peace their fear was unjust and groundless nor have VVe ever before heard there was such a fear in them Fourteenth Article of the Declaration We will not speak of many Corruptions and Abuses as passing a Custodium upon the Abby of Kilbeggan worth in past years to the Confederates well nigh 400 l. per annum to Secretary Lane for 40 l. or thereabouts per annum not of many other such like to Daniel O Neil and others at an under-value to the great prejudice of the Publick ANSWER To this We answer That they have in Truth no reason to speak of any particular Corruptions and Abuses in this Article generally mentioned that which they instance in Secretary Lane's having a Custodium of Kilbeggan being so false that he never had any thing to do with it If they had had a truer instance VVe suppose they would not have spared to make use of it What Daniel O Neil had they set not down nor till they do are We able to answer it Fifteenth Article of the Declaration We do also notifie unto the Catholicks of the Kingdom most of the above Grievances and breaches of the Peace being delivered to the Commissioners of Trust in February last that the Clergy and Laity receiving redress and justice the discontent of the Subject ought to be removed no amendment appeared after eight months effluxed but the evil still continued that occasioned the ruine of the Nation and we also protest to the whole World having done our best we have no power to remove the jealousies and fears of the People ANSWER If these abovementioned pretended Grievances whereof most are disproved and some confessed and proved to be no breaches of the Peace were delivered to the Commissioners of Trust in February last We never saw them till September after the meeting at Jamestown in August last And if hereby be meant that Paper of pretended Grievances without Title or Subscription whereunto We have sent you Our Answers We never saw them till the 17th of August last The Conclusion of the Declaration Besides the above injuries and violation of the Articles of the Peace against Religion the Kings interest and the Nation nothing appearing before the eyes of the People but desolation waste burning and the destruction of the Kingdom three parts of four thereof being come under Contribution to the Enemy Cities Towns and strong Holts taken from them Altars pulled down Churches lost Priest killed and banished Sacraments Sacrifice and all things holy profaned and almost wholly extinguished Armies and great numbers of Souldiers by them maintained and the Enemy not fought withal those that would fight for them born down and those that would betray them cherished and advanced Finally no visible Army or defence appearing they are come to a despair of recovering what is lost or defending what they hold and some inclining for the safety of their Lives and Estates do compound with the Parliament persuading themselves no safety can be to any under the Government of the Lord Lieutenant attended by fate and disaster For prevention of those evils and that the Kingdom may not be lost to His Majesty and His Catholick Subjects this Congregation of Archbishops and other Prelates and Dignitaries of both Clergies of this Kingdom found our selves bound in Conscience after great deliberation to declare against the continuance of His Majesties Authority in the person of the said Marquess of Ormond premitting this Protestation to the World That we had never come to such Declaration but that we and the People of this Kingdom generally despair of the Kingdoms recovery under his Government as hereby we do declare as well in our own names and behalf as in the names and behalf of the rest of the Catholicks of this Kingdom against him the said Marquess of Ormond having by his misgovernment ill conduct of His Majesties Army and the breach of Publick Faith with the People in several particulars of the Articles of Peace rendred himself incapable of continuing that great trust any longer being questionable before His Majesty for the foresaid injuries and ill government to which effect we will join with other members of this Kingdom in drawing a charge against him And we do hereby manifest to the People They are no longer obliged to obey the Orders and Commands of the said Lord Marguess of Ormond but are until a General Assembly of the Nation can be conveniently called together unanimously to serve against the Common Enemy for defence of the Catholick Religion His Majesties interests their liberties lives and fortunes in pursuance of the Oath of Association and to observe in the mean time the Form of Government the said Congregation shall prescribe until it be otherwise ordered by an Assembly or until upon application to His Majesty he settle the same otherwise And we do fulminate the annexed Excommunication of one date with this Declaration against all opposers of the same Declaration All ye good Christians that shall read this our Declaration forced from us by the affliction and disasters of distressed Ireland be pleased to know that we well understand the present condition of this Nation is more inclining to ruine and despair than recovery yet will we relie upon the mercy of God who can and will take off from us the heavy judgments of his Anger War and Plague if we shall amend our wicked lives and lean like little ones upon the arms of his mercy As we cry to Heaven for remedy let us confess with tears our sins saying with the Prophet Isaiah Cecidimus quasi folium universi iniquitates nostrae quasi ventus abstulerant nos Non est qui invocet nomen tuum Domine non est qui consurgat teneat te Abscondisti faciem tuam a nobis allisisti nos in manu iniquitatis nostrae This language from the heart will reconcile Heaven unto us quiescet ira Dei erit placabilis super nequitia populi sui Though this Nobleman hath left us nothing but weakness want and desolation and that the Enemy is rich strong and powerful God is stronger and can help us
You may at the very first hearing of this Proposal plainly discover their design to be no other than by such indirect means of cunning delayes under pretence of filial reverence forsooth to hinder you for ever from professing at least to any purpose i. e. in a sufficient manner or by any sufficient Formulary that loyal obedience you owe to his Majesty and to the Laws of your Country in all Affairs of meer temporal concern This you cannot but judge to be their drift unless peradventure you think them to be really so frantick as to perswade themselves That from Julius Caesar or his Successor Octavian after the one or the other had by arms and slaughter tyrannically seized the Commonwealth any one could expect a free and voluntary restitution of the People to their ancient Liberty or which is it I mean and is the more unlikely of the two That from Clement the Tenth now sitting in the Chair at Rome or from his next or from any other Successor now after six hundred years of continual usurpation in matters of highest nature and now also after the Lives of about fourscore Popes one succeeding another since Hildebrand or Gregory the Seventh his Papacy and since the Deposition of the Emperor Henry the Fourth by Him in the year of Christ 1077 any one should expect by a paper-Petition or paper-Address to obtain the restoring or manumising of the Christian World Kingdoms States and Churches to their native rights and freedom or that indeed it could be other than ridiculous folly and madness to expect this And yet certainly thiâ— must be the natural consequent of the Popes or present Papal Courts giving you licence to sign such a publick Instrument as will do your selves and Religion right amongst his Majesties Protestant Subjects or as even amongst your selves will satisfie the more ingenuous loyal and intelligent Persons Thus at last in so many several Paragraphs in all eighteen I have given at large those farther and more particular thoughts of mine relating both to the proper causes and proper remedies of those Evils which as you so much complain lie so heavy on you as Papists to wit the rigorous Sanctions of the penal Laws c. And consequently I have given you those conceptions whereof I said also before not only That without peradventure you may find them to be right if you please to examine things calmly with unprejudicâ—d reading and coolely with unbyassed reason but also That beside your great concern above others in the peculiar Subject of the Book it was my desire to speak directly and immediately to your selves all that moved me to make this consecratory Address to you as esteeming the knowledge of such matters to be for your great advantage and withall considering a Dedicatory Epistle as the fittest place in which I might present them to your view A third motive yet and this the onely other if in effect it be another of this Dedication was my further desire of choosing you as the fittest Judges of such a Work seeing you are the only Professors amongst all those of so many different Churches in these Kingdoms who peculiarly derive your Faith from that of Old Rome which will still be famous throughout the World For although I thought it excusable not to importune you for Patronage to a Book whose Nativity is I know not which very hard or very easie to calculate nevertheless I held it but reasonable to submit wholly to your judgment the Book it self and the Subject therein handled or the Controversie 'twixt the persecuted Remonstrants of the year 1661 of one side and their persecuting Antagonists of the other In which judgment of yours I have the more reason to be concern'd for both That this and some other Books or Tracts of mine already printed and publish'd besides some other well nigh ready for the Press as well in English as in Latin do in that cause wholly decline the Authoritative â—udgment of His Holiness and consequently of all His suspected Ministers and all other suspected Delegates whatsoever as holding them in that Controversie not to be competent Judges but criminal Parties and knowing that not only in common reason and equity but also by the express Canons of the Catholick Church they cannot be Parties and Judges in the same cause with authority to bind others Therefore until His Holiness or His subordinate Ministers Officials or Delegates under Him in point of or in order to such Authoritative Judgment be pleased to proceed Canonically against me and other Remonstrants i. e. to proceed against us in a Regular Judicatory or Tribunal and in a Regular way that is by giving us indifferent Judges and a place of safety to appear in and both beyond all exception according to the Canons of the Universal Church I and my said Fellow-sufferers the few remaining constant Remonstrators must be in a high measure concern'd in that other I think more excellent kind of judgment which is common to you and to all judicious sober conscientious Men a judgment not of authority or power to bind others but of discretion and reason to direct your selves in order to that opinion you are to hold of and communication you may have with us after you have throughly and seriously ponderâ—d the merits of our Cause and the proceedings of those who would make themselves even against all the Rules of Reason and all the Canons too of the Christian Church our Authoritative Judges in that very Cause in which they are the principal Parties However though I cannot for my own part otherwise choose than be somewhat sollicitous for the succesâ— while it is a meer future contingency yet I hope and am almost confident That my integrity and constancy in the Roman-Catholick Religion shall be vindicated against all Aspersions and Misconstructions when I Appeal to you for Justification whose Censure would be the most grievous that can befall me For in truth I do so Appeal to you in this very passage most humbly and earnestly demanding of you 1. Whether in those two grand Controversies one succeeding another the former that of the Nuncio Rinuccini's Ecclesiastical Censures of Interdict and Excommunication in the Kingdom of Ireland (e) an 1648. against all the Adherers to the Cessation concluded by the Confederate Catholicks with the then Baron now or late Earl of Inchiquin who had then declared for the late King the later of the Remonstrance presented to His Majesty (f) an 1661 â— since His Happy Restauration in both which I have ever since continually engaged against the Roman Courts designs on the Supreme Temporal power of these Kingdoms Whether I say my Sermons or my Books my Doctrine or my Practice in the Concerns of either Controversie can be justly tax'd with so much as one tittle or one action against that Roman-Catholick Faith which you all together with the Roman-Catholick World abroad believe as necessary to Salvation 2. Or seeing there is not so much as any
do what he was directed from Ireland he delivered the several papers to my Lord Lieutenant and both humbly and earnestly beseeched His Grace to consider of them and present the case to His Majestie and particularly that Remonstrance acknowledgement protestation and petition of the Clergie Then which scarce could any thing more be expected from them for the future whatever they or any of them had been formerly But his Grace two days after returned this answer That the Remonstrance or Declaration or Protestation therein inserted although it might well in some things be made more full and more satisfactory yet however it might be useful were it not onely a bare paper without any subscription or hand to own it Whereunto the Procuratour had no more to say but that likely they in whose behalf it was thought it enough himself should own it in their name and that the times were such in Ireland as they could not scarce three of them meet together and most of their Bishops were abroad in other Countries in exile whom to consult particularly either at home or abroad would require a longer time then the present sufferings of the generallity at home without some speedy commiseration of them could bear That in the mean time until the rest might be acquainted with the exception against it for not being signed those few of that Clergie then at London come from several parts thither which were about 30 in all and one of their Bishops amongst them would he doubted not own and signe it for themselves whereby His Majestie and Grace might see it was no forgery or imposture That he hoped the rest would when they had an opportunity to meet do the same generally And yet that although himself had as His Grace knew a general power from them under their hands and Seals to act for them all nevertheless forasmuch as this was a very special business and that he had no special Commission from them to sign this Instrument or such a special Declaration of their doctrine and conscience and because he had formerly so much experience of the diversity of their affections inclinations and interest 's in a point of this nature and of the awe they or many of them stood in or would stand in of the Court of Rome and of their dependencies thence which their titular pretensions there continued evermore he dared not venture upon owning or subscribing it in all their names though he was ready to do it in his own even as their Procuratour but still not owning a special Commission herein from them And yet hoped with all that so much affliction at home and their exile abroad for so many years under the late Usurpers had made them all wiser by this time then to scruple at the signing of a Declaration so Catholick in it self so just and necessary from them and a Declaration moreover which tyed them to no more then they were bound unto before by all the laws of God and man without any such Declaration or subscription whatsoever if perhaps we except not under the notion of such laws those Papal Canons onely however rejected by all Christians that are not subject to the Pope in his temporal principality and as well by right reason and Christian Religion condemned as indeed such declaration and subscription was chiefly intended against such III. In pursuance of this discourse and to clear as well as might be then and there at London that rational exception of His Grace a meer Paper not signed by any the Procuratour having acquainted the Catholick Bishop of Dromore then at London and such others of the Irish Clergie there with it and with the whole business and storm lately raised in Ireland against all the Catholicks on pretence of that forged letter they met together two several days at the said Procuratours chamber about 30 of them and with the Bishop four and twenty more signed the said humble Remonstrance the other 4 or 5 excusing themselves onely on pretence of inconveniency or unexpediency and such like not at all of any unlawfulness or uncatholickness in the Declaration or any thing els in the whole Paper as they declared there publickly The Nobility and Gentry also of Ireland in great number at London at that time found themselves no less concerned in this matter And therefore after having for eight weeks consequently together in several meetings publickly debated it and consulted also some eminent persons of the English Catholick Nobility and that also in a publick meeting where the same English Noblemen declared their approbation of it and having fitted for themselves an other preamble and Petition subscribed the same Declaration word by word as those of their Clergie had and presented it to His Majestie by a special Committee sent from themselves and by the hands of the Earl of Tirconel The original of which signed by 97. hands the said Earl keeps as he was entrusted with it by His Majestie who most graciously received it and kept a clean copy with himself as he had that formerly of their Clergie-men Soon after both were published in Print in distinct sheets with an advertisement to the Reader from the Procuratour under that of the Clergie which was perclosed with an invitation not onely to the rest of the Irish Clergie wheresoever but to all those of both English Scots and Welch of that function and Religion to concurre in the same or like to wipe off their holy faith and communion the scandal of such unholy principles in point of government and obedience which had so much prejudiced them and their predecessours for a whole age and reduced them to those miseries under which they groaned so long But in regard those 4. or 5. dissentors with such others English or Irish Clergie men either at London or other places as approved their unreasonable opposition made use of their exceptions and several arguments whereon they grounded their allegations of unexpediency or inconveniency the Procuratour found it necessary to give in Pâ—int and in a little book which he called The More Ample Account c. not onely the occasion of transmitting from Ireland that Remonstrance but the grounds at large which concluded both the expediency and necessity incumbent on the Clergie of Ireland in particular and above all others to subscribe it with answers to all the exceptions made till that time by the dissentors And by occasion of the last of them enlarged himself on those arguments which evidently shew by reason Scripture Fathers practise of primitive Christians and by answers to all the grand objections to the contrary that it is in no kind of contingency lawful or just in Subjects to take arms on any pretext whatsoever against the Prince or Laws or in any kind of case wherein the municipal laws of the land do not warrant them Which being addressed and by an Epistle prefixed to all the several Arch-bishops Bishops Vicars General Provincials of Regular Orders Abbots Priors Guardians Rectors
Magin one of Her Majesties Chaplains coming along with his Lordship and being present all the Discourse but none else besides the said Father Redmund Caron How this Discourse continued three hours from Ten a Clock in the morning to One in the Afternoon How therein after due Salutes the Procurator immediately gave his Lordship a full account of the occasion motives ends and effects too of the Remonstrance continuing his Speech for half an hour or thereabouts and concluding That being it was apparent enough that in the said Remonstrance or Act of Recognition and Petition thereunto annexed there was nothing but what was consonant to Christian Religion and as such maintain'd expresly even in our dayes and at that very present by the Gallican Church and Universities he could not but wonder much his Lordship and Cardinal Francis Barberin should write such Letters as they had to the Nobility Gentry and Clergy of Ireland against that innocent Formulary How the Internuncio answering That his Holiness had condemn'd it the Procurator replied That besides the Non-appearance of any such Papal condemnation it was plain enough his Holiness was misinformed not only concerning the occasion expediency necessity ends and use of that Instrument but the very matter also contained therein even as Paul the V. formerly in Anno 1606. in those of the Oath of Allegiance had been misinformed and consequently abused by Father Parsons the English Jesuite and by Cardinal Bellarmine and those other six or seven Theologues deputed by that Pope to report their sense of the said Oath of Allegiance made by King James by occasion of the Powder-plot Treason How hereupon the Internuncio with some anger rejoin'd shortly Ego informavi I am he that inform'd his Holiness and the Brocurator to him again near as shortly But with your good leave my Lord you have not rightly nor well informed giving withal his convincing Reasons How Father Caron adding to the Procurator's answer and in short desiring the Internuncio to point out the Proposition or Clause one or more in that Formulary against Catholick Faith and finally concluding and asserting the said Formulary to be in all parts and all respects intirely conformable to Christian Doctrine and Catholick Faith the Internuncio had no more to say but Vos ita censetis Sedes autem Apostolica aliter censet yea think so but the See Apostolick otherwise How when both Caron and Walsh had again replied That general Allegations without particular proof of the See Apostolick's sense were to no purpose That the original or at least authentick Copy should be produced That credit in such matters was not to be given not even to the Letters of the very Cardinals as both Civilians and Canonists do teach That the Popes own acknowledg'd private Letters in case there had been such have no binding force no nor even his Briefs or Bulls in the present or other such Controversies That the point of the Popes Infallibility was no matter of Christian or Catholick Faith That the See Apostolick Roman Court and Catholick Church of Christ were three different things finally that together with all now said the reverence and obedience to his Holiness did very well consist how I say this Replication being made the Internuncio looking no more as superciliously or high as he had till then begun to speak to Father Walsh after another manner i. e. moderately and by way rather of Entreaty and Prayer than Command or Empire How this was to desire the said Father Walsh to lay by thenceforward all thoughts of that Remonstrance and think rather of any other medium whereby to obtain His MAJESTIES gracious propension to look mercifully and favourably on the Clergy of Ireland notwithstanding any thing formerly acted by them How when Father Walsh had briefly answer'd That really he knew no means could serve that end without some such Act of Recognition as the Remonstrance was the Internuncio replied He himself then would propose one and how accordingly he did this viz. Sanctissimus Dominus meus c. My most Holy Lord sayes he shall issue a Bull to all the Irish commanding them under pain of Excommunication to be henceforth and continue faithful and obedient to the King How the Procurator saying presently hereunto That indeed my Lord is the medium which if accepted would make His MAJESTY a down-right Vassal to the Pope and a very King of Cards but I hope His MAJESTY hath some better and surer means to rely on for keeping that Kingdom in peace than any kind of Bull or other even Letters Patent from his Holiness the Internuncio presently again Then sayes he I propose this other medium viz. Sanctissimus Dominus meus c. My most Holy Lord shall grant and create as many Bishops and Archbishops for Ireland as His Majesty and His Vice-Roy or Lieutenant in Ireland the Duke of Ormond will desire and those very persons they shall fix upon and moreover shall empower those persons so created Prelates to dismiss and send away out of Ireland all Clergymen whatsoever whom they shall find to be disloyal to the King How moreover the said Procurator to this also replied That although it was much more specious than the former yet considering His MAJESTIES Religion and the Laws now as yet in force and other Affairs too it seem'd impracticable for the present That were His MAJESTY even of the Roman communion nay and being what He is there was nothing offered by this medium but what was and is His own by ancient Right I mean the naming of all Prelates and suffering no other such but of His own Nomination And for banishing Disturbers away That sure He could Himself do that without the help of either Pope or inferiour Bishops whenever he should find such Proscriptions necessary And further That if He could not at least by the Authority of His own Laws or must or would admit of the Popes Authority therein as necessary then surely he must also or would in so much and that an essential point of Temporal Sovereignty acknowledge His own dependance from a Forreign power which questionless He neither would nor could Therefore considering all this besides the strict Oath of Allegiance and Obedience which even such Archbishops and Bishops must before their Consecration take to the Pope and not they alone but all sorts of beneficed persons according to the present practice and Rules of the Roman Church or prescript of their Pontificals and other Canons and must take also even expresly against all those they call or esteem Hereticks the last proposed medium could be no medium at all not as much as any kind of way probable if the Remonstrance and all such other Recognitions were by the self-same Prelates and all other inferiour Irish Clergymen laid by Especially considering that the Oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance both Enacted by the municipal Laws here had been long since by the Popes and Court of Rome and by all their fast Friends or maintainers of
fortune of War and division of minds had hapned he also thought fit to change parties and look back towards the old Confederacy and consequently to be as active as others in the unhappy Congregation of Bishops at Jamestown in the year 1650. signing both their Declaration against the King 's Lieutenant and Excommunication too against all that would any way obey his Excellency This remedy not proving either useful or proper but far more noxious and the Parliament Forces gaining thereby and by the Lord Lieutenant's departure so much ground that all seemâ—d very soon after to be in a desperate condition and the Marquess of Clanrickard by Ormond left Deputy for the King in pursuance of Monsieur St. Katherin's negotiation with him from the Duke of Lorrain having sent other Commissioners to Flanders to Treat with his said Highness of Lorrain provided they had first the King's consent our Bishop my Lord of Ferns also departs the Kingdom to sollicit aids from Catholick Princes but not otherwise authorized thereunto than by the Letters of private persons albeit otherwise some of them Bishops Coming to Paris and there denied access which he desired to His Majesty our Gracious King and attributing this affront to the Marquess of Ormond he takes it to heart and speaks and both writes and prints too a little piece wherein he reflects too severely and unjustly on him the said Marquess of Ormond Which if I mistake not was it that occasion d those Books written after at Paris in opposition and answer one to the other by Father John Ponce the zealous Nuntiotist Franciscan and Richard Belings Esq that no less Ormonist than known Royalist although in former times the first Legat to Rome from the Confederates and other Princes of Italy and the very man that occasion'd the sending of the Nuncio to Ireland The negotiation with the Duke of Lorrain having come to nothing and Limmerick and Galway surrendred and consequently soon after the whole Kingdom submitted to the Parliament of England the afflicted Bishop knowing that by reason of his having on his return from Rome immediately quitted the Nuncio party and both submitted to and promoted the Peace of 1648 and of his consequential being blasted ever since by the factious Irish at Rome as an Ormonist there could be no favourable reception or accomodation expected for him in that Court he shifts the best he can for himself in several places until at last the Archbishop of St. Jago in Galicia in Spain harbour'd him generously and bountifully according to his dignity and merits where continuing for some years and officiating as a Suffragan Bishop he begun a correspondence with me by Letters soon after His Majesties happy Restauration as together with his Lordship did the good Irish Father of the Society of Jesus Father William St. Leger and either by James Cusack a Secular Priest and Doctor of Divinity or by Father George Gould a Franciscan both which came from him directly and brought me Letters hither to London he sent me some writings of his own against Ferral's Book The Book as I have noted before which not only bastardizing all those Irish not descended of the more ancient Septs or Names that possess'd Ireland even before any Invasion either of English or Danes nor only in general involving all that later brood under the Title of wicked Politicians Anti-Catholicks c. but particularly and singularly falling on the Two Ambassadors yea and taxing them with having of set purpose all along betrayed the Nuncio and his cause the Book I say that by such precious Contents from the first line to the last of it both opened our good Bishop's eyes more then any other argument could to see clearly the ultimate designs of that Party which led him blindfold so long and so often especially at Waterford in 1646. and Jamestown in the year 1650. and if I be not very much out in my conjecture was at least partly either the cause or the occasion of his beginning so and desiring a correspondence with me then anno 1662. at London he himself remaining at St. Jago What followed after his first Letters to me i. e. after what Dr. Cusack one of the first Subscribers of the Remonstrance writ him back what he return'd in the year 1662. to this Doctor what to the Duke of Ormond and me in 1665 pro or con upon the Subject of the Remonstrance what to me again in May 1666. from St. Sebastian viz. after he had received the Indiction and presuming licence to return home had quitted his good condition at St. Jago what I to him in answer and finally what he replyed to me in July that same year from Paris will best appear out of the Bishops own Letters Whereof I give here as many as I judg'd material or useful to any design of this First Tome and much the rather because he is not only the onely Bishop yet alive of those of the Irish Nation that were made before Nuncio Rinuccini's time but the onely also that endeavoured to give the best reasons he could for himself or for his own dissent as to that expected or desired from him And I must say this besides that surely had he the writer of them had as good a cause and been as much conversant in the Gallican Theology which in the point controverted is that of the Primitive Fathers of Christianity as he is both a good Orator and laying the Affairs of Ireland aside a very pious and exemplar Prelate the Irish Nation generally had never been as unhappy as it is even at this present The Roman-Catholick Bishop of Fern's Letter from St. Jago 18 Junii 1662. To the Reverend James Cusack Doctor of Divinity at London SIR BY the four last Letters I had from you to which I have heretofore answered you demand from me two things to wit an approbation of a Protestation signed by L. B. of Dromore your self and other Divines of our Nation in that City and that I would give you a power to sign a Procuratorium Father Peter Walsh hath from the Clergy of Ireland whereunto Edmund Reilly Antony Geoghegan James Dempsy and others have consented as you write to me To the same I also willingly consent and do hereby impower you to sign in my 〈◊〉 the said Procuratorium but with this limitation the said Father Walsh shall do nothing for me nor in my name touching the above mentioned Protestation until he shall receive my own express sense and answer That Protestation seems a Rock to the Divines of our Nation in this Kingdom and they wonder ye there made so easie a work of it yet of your good intentions in illo facto most of them rest well satisfied persuading themselves there was a necessity of undeceiving the Prince and clearing our Clergy from black Calumnies but they differ from you in the judgment of the matter and lawfulness of the said Protestation Briefly the opinion of the Divines here as well of our Nation
nay out of prudential considerations opposed to his power their censuring it upon any such motive as might give the King or State here any kind of jealousie To which answer of his I replyed more I am sure than left him any place of rejoynder adding nevertheless that although such endeavours did seem to me a real diminution of and consequently Treason against Majesty yet being it was my whole business to obtain for them all from his Majesty a general and gracious Oblivion of and Indempnity for all and every kind of transgression how heinous soever whereof they or any of all their Brethren the Irish Ecclesiasticks might be taxed as fallen into at any time since Octob. 23. 1641 until the present Month and day of June 1666 sure I had no other end in producing him as the procurer of the Louain Censure but only to make the Fathers present to understand and know the lying Arts wherewith it was procured by him and they all and rest of the Irish Clergy had been so long ever since the procuring thereof hindred from their necessary approbation of and concurrence to the Remonstrance Nor do I remember now any other material passage of this fourteenth day of June and fourth of the Congregation save only two The first was the Bishop of Ardagh's particular and positive and no less passionate than inconsiderate I might say very unwarrantable untrue and notoriously false answer to the second Querie concerning a Petition for Pardon For he and he alone had the confidence that I may not say impudence and frenzy to answer That he knew none of that Congregation who had been ever at any time obnoxious to the Laws for any thing acted in the time of the late Civil Wars of the Roman Catholick Confederats nor consequently any that was in any kind of need of petitioning for Pardon either for themselves or any others of the Irish Clergy I must confess That when I heard this answer from his Lordship nor gain-said by any of the rest I presently apprehended there was no kind of Resolution how mad or desperate soever but might be expected from such infatuated persons However I replyed to his Lordship in this manner But is it possible indeed My Lord that either your self or any other of all here present can believe you speak your Soul in such manner Can not I produce and name more than Twenty nay at least Thirty even of those here present now that have been and are still obnoxious to the Laws upon account of their carriage during the late Wars of the Roman Catholick Confederates Are there not more than five hundred more of the Irish Clergy yet alive who are likewise obnoxious still upon that account Or do not you peradventure know there is no Act of Indempnity as yet granted to them or even so much as to their Lay Confederates Or consider not that this denyal of yours is an express Justification not only of the first Rebellion in the year 1641 but of all that followed even also of the Nuncios and his Parties violation of the first Peace in 1646 and of his and their Censures against the Cessation with Inchiquin and of the second Peace too in the year 1648 nay and of both the Declaration and Excommunication made and fulminated by the Bishop at Jamestown in the year 1650 against his Majesties Lieutenant General and General Governour then of Ireland the then Marquess now Duke of Ormond and all those would obey him yea is not consequently this Speech of yours in effect an express Declaration that it may be Lawful for the Irish to rise again as and when they shall think fit in Arms against the Laws and King This and much more to this purpose did I then indeed affectionately before all the Fathers reply to Ardagh and both dilate upon and exaggerate in the best and least offensive Language I could For conclusion adding 1. That not even his Lordships own self had carried himself so innocently as not to need a Pardon 2. That neither would I nor did I intend to exempt so much as my self albeit not only both the least and latest Transgressor of them all in relation to the War but even the earliest and greatest opposer amongst them of such as would continue the War against the Cessation and Peace c. And yet not one of all stood up or spake a word to second me not even Primat Reilly himself though by his own former confession even in his Letter of submission and though otherwise but too manifestly and notoriously even to the knowledge of all the Kingdom so enormously obnoxious nay though himself had so lately before writ amongst other things under his own hand in his late Letter from Paris for that Assembly Vid. Second Paâ—â—â—f the First Treat pag. 612 Where you have this Letter of Primat Reilly to the Congregation his advice and desire that they should prostrate themselves at his Majesties feet with an humble Petition humbly begging his Majesties plenary Pardon for the offences and transgressions as well those were hidden as those were notorious of all and every individual of the said Irish Clergy such as were committed by them or any of them at any time during the last five and twenty years The Second particular was the Effect with the reading of those publick Instruments i. e. of my Procuratorium and Letters Obediential together with the account I gave all along of my own best endeavours and purest intentions in serving them since 1660 in quality of their Procurator till that present had produced in some of them and that even publickly before the whole Congregation I mean remorse and Repentance for nay publick Confession of their having wrongfully in remote parts of the Kingdom represented and traduced me before they had sufficiently known the truth of things yea and which was consequential a submissive begging of me even there also in publick to Pardon them whatever they had done or spoken so against me Those few Penitents as far as I can remember who made such open confession and beg'd my Pardon so no less openly were Father John O Hairt Prior Provincial of the Dominican Order throughout Ireland and two Secular Priests being Vicars General of two vacant Sees or Diocesses in the Province of Tuam or Connaught one was Elphin as the Vicars name was Thomas O Higgin The other Priests name as likewise of which of the Connaught Diocesses he was Vicar I have forgotten though I remember well his person which was ancient grave and Venerable But that which I shall never forget was my own extraordinary great admiration then To see men of such quality and judgment pretending so much remorse of Conscience by acknowledging in such manner the injuries they had done me and therefore begging pardon of me submissively and yet not one in all that National Congregation to be found that opened once his mouth for confession of any villanies committed against the King at any time
the mean time that no such Indictments Attainders Outlawries Processes or other proceedings thereupon nor any Letters Patents Grants Leases Custodiums Bonds Recognizances or any Record Act or Acts Office or Offices Inquisitions or any other thing depending upon or taken by reason of the said Indictments Attainders or Outlawries shall in any sort prejudice the said Roman Catholicks or any of them but that they and every of them shall be forthwith on perfection of these Articles restored to their respective possessions and hereditaments respectively provided that no man shall be questioned by reason hereof for measne rates or wastes saving wilful wastes committed after the first day of May last past V. Item It is likewise concluded accorded and agreed and His Majesty is graciously pleased that as soon as possibly may be all impediments which may hinder the said Roman Catholicks to sit or vote in the next intended Parliament or to choose or to be chosen Knights and Burgesses to sit or vote there shall be removed and that before the said Parliament VI. Item It is concluded accorded and agreed upon and His Majesty is further graciously pleased That all Debts shall remain as they were upon the 23d of October 1641. notwithstanding any disposition made or to be made by vertue or colour of any Attainders Outlawry Fugacy or other forfeiture and that no Disposition or Grant made or to be made of any such Debts by vertue of any Attainder Outlawry Fugacy or other forfeiture shall be of force and this to be passed as an Act in the next Parliament VII Item It is further concluded accorded and agreed upon and His Majesty is graciously pleased That for the securing of the Estates or reputed Estates of the Lords Knights Gentlemen and Freeholders or reputed Freeholders as well of Connaught and County of Clare or Countrey of Thomond as of the Counties of Limerick and Tipperary the same to be secured by Act of Parliament according to the intent of the 25th Article of the Graces granted in the Fourth year of His Majesties Reign the tenour whereof for so much as concerneth the same doth ensue in these words viz. We are graciously pleased that for the securing of the Inhabitants of Connaught and Countrey of Thomond and County of Clare that their several Estates shall be confirmed unto them and their Heirs against Vs and our Heirs and Successors by Act to be passed in the next Parliament to be holden in Ireland to the end the same may never hereafter be brought into any further question by us our Heirs and Successors In which Act of Parliament so to be passed you are to take care that all tenures in capite and all Rents and Services as are now due or which ought to be answered unto Us out of the said Lands and Premises by any Letters Patents past thereof since the first year of King Henry the Eighth or found by any Office taken from the said first year of King Henry the Eighth until the One and twentieth of July 1615. whereby Our late dear Father or any His Predecessors actually received any profit by Wardship Liveries Primer-seizins Measne-rates Ousterlemaynes or Fines of Alienations without Licence be again reserved unto Us Our Heirs and Successors and all the rest of the Premises to be holden of our Castle of Athlone by Knights service according to our said late Fathers Letters notwithstanding any tenures in capite found for Us by office since the One and twentieth of July One thousand six hundred and fifteen and not appearing in any such Letters Patents or Offices within which Rule His Majesty is likewise graciously pleased That the said Lands in the Counties of Limerick and Tipperary be included but to be held by such Rents and Tenures only as they were in the fourth year of His Majesties Reign provided alwayes That the said Lords Knights Gentlemen and Freeholders or reputed Freeholders of the said Province of Connaught County of Clare and County of Thomond and Counties of Tipperary and Limerick shall have and enjoy the full benefit of such composition and agreement which shall be made with His most Excellent Majesty for the Court of Wards Tenures Respite and issues of homage any Clause in this Article to the contrary notwithstanding And as for the Lands within the Counties of Kilkenny and Wickloe unto which His Majesty was intituled by office taken or found in the time of the Earl of Strafford's Government in this Kingdom His Majesty is further graciously pleased That the state thereof shall be considered in the next intended Parliament where His Majesty will assent unto that which shall be just and honourable And that the like Act of Limitation of His Majesties Titles for the security of the Estates of His Subjects of this Kingdom be passed in the said Parliament as was Enacted in the One and twentieth year of His late Majesty King James's Reign in England VIII Item It is further concluded accorded and agreed upon and His Majesty is further graciously pleased That all incapacities imposed upon the Natives of this Kingdom or any of them as Natives by any Act of Parliament Provisoes in Patents or otherwise be taken away by Act to be passed in the said Parliament and that they may be enabled to erect one or more Inns of Court in or near the City of Dublin or elsewhere as shall be thought fit by His Majesties Lord Lieutenant or other chief Governour or Governours of this Kingdom for the time being And in case the said Inns of Court shall be erected before the first day of the next Parliament then the same shall be in such place as His Majesties Lord Lieutenant or other chief Governour or Governours of this Kingdom for the time being by and with the advice and consent of the said Thomas Lord Viscount Dillon of Castelloe Lord President of Connaught Donnogh Lord Viscount Muskery Francis Lord Baron of Athunrie Alexander mac Donnel Esq Sir Lucas Dillon Knight Sir Nicholas Plunket Knight Sir Richard Barnewall Baronet Geoffery Browne Donnogh O Callaghane Tirlagh O Neil Miles Reilly and Gerald Fennel Esquires or any seven or more of them shall think fit And that such Students Natives of this Kingdom as shall be therein may take and receive the usual degrees accustomed in any Inns of Court they taking the ensuing Oath viz. I A. B. do truly acknowledge profess testifie and declare in my Conscience before God and the World That our Sovereign Lord King CHARLES is lawful and rightful King of this Realm and of other His Majesties Dominions and Countries and I will bear Faith and true Allegiance to His Majesty His Heirs and Successors and Him and Them will defend to the uttermost of my power against all Conspiracies and Attempts whatsoever which shall be made against His or Their Crown and Dignity and do my best endeavour to disclose and make known to His Majesty His Heirs and Successors or to the Lord Deputy or other His Majesties Chief Governour