Ireland or England 2. That the secular Clergy of Ireland viz. Primates Archbishops Bishops Ordinaries Deans Deans and Chapters Archdeacons Prebendaries and other Dignitaries Parsons Vicars and all other Pastors of the secular Clergy and their respective Successors shall have and enjoy all and all manner of Jurisdictions Priviledges Immunities in as full and ample manner as the Roman Catholicks secular Clergy had or enjoy'd the same within this Realm at any time during the Reign of the late H. 7. sometimes King of England and Lord of Ireland any Law Declaration of Law Statute Power and Authority whatsoever to the contrary notwithstanding 3. That all Laws and Statutes made since the 20th year of King H. 8. whereby any Restraint Penalty Mulct Incapacity or Restriction whatsoever is or may be laid upon any of the Roman Catholicks either of the Clergy or of the Laity for such the said free Exercise of the Roman Catholick Religion within this Kingdom and of their several Functions Jurisdictions and Priviledges may be repeal'd revoked and declared void by one or more Acts of Parliament to be pas'd therein 4. That all Primates Archbishops Bishops Ordinaries Deans Deans and Chapters Archdeacons Chancellors Treasures Chaunters Provosts Wardens of Collegiate Churches Prebendaries and other Dignitaries Parsons Vicars and other Pastors of the Roman Catholick secular Clergy and their respective Successors shall have hold and enjoy all the Churches and Church-Livings in as large and ample manner as the late Protestant Clergy respectively enjoy'd the same on the first day of October in the year of our Lord 1641. together with all the Profits Emoluments Perquisits Liberties and the Rights to their respective Sees and Churches belonging as well in all Places now in the possession of the Confederate Confederate Catholicks as also in all other places that shall be recovered by the said Confederate Catholicks from the adverse Party within this Kingdom saving to the Roman Catholick Laity their Rights according to the Laws of the Land And that the Supreme Council the legitimate issue of the General Assembly might look with the better face of Authority they fram'd to themselves a Seal bearing the mark of a long Cross on the right side whereof a Crown and a Harp on the left with a Dove above and a flaming Heart below the Cross and round about this Inscription Pro Deo pro Rege Patria Hibernia unanimis with which they seal'd their Credentials to Princes and under that Seal pass'd their principal Acts of Sovereignty Having now modell'd themselves into a separate State confronting his Majesties Royal Government setled in Dublin ordering in their Supreme Council at Kilkenny in the said Province of Leimster all their Affairs Civil and Military through the whole Kingdom As to War they had their Forces under the Conduct of four well experienc'd Generals before mentioned answering the several Provinces of Leimster Munster Connaght and Ulster Giving out Letters of Mart An Example of which together with the Authority they assum'd notwithstanding his Majesties Proclamation of the 1st of January 1641. we shall hear give you at large By the Supreme Council of the Confederate Catholicks of Ireland TO all Men to whom this Present shall come We the Supreme Council of the Confederate Catholicks of this Realm send Greeting Know ye That we have taken into our serious consideration the great and necessary use we have of Ships of War for the defence of the Coasts of this Realm and advancement and furtherance of Commerce with Foreign Nations and for opposing his Majesties Enemies who daily hinder and annoy his Majesties good Subjects of this Kingdom by Sea and stop all free Trade in this Realm and abroad have therefore constituted and appointed and do hereby ordain constitute and appoint our well-beloved Friend Captain Francis Oliver Native of Flanders having received good testimony of his sufficiency and integrity to be Captain of the Ship called St. Michael the Archangel of burthen 120 Lasts or Tuns or thereabouts hereby giving and granting unto the said Captain full and absolute Power Commission and Authority to furnish the said Ship with all Necessaries fit for Sea and War and with the same to cross the Seas and take hinder and prejudice all such as he shall find or meet of His Majesties Enemies the Enemies of the General Catholick Cause now in hand in this Kingdom their Ships and Goods whatsoever either by Sea or Land by what means soever and the said Shipping or Goods to set to sale and dispose of as lawful Prizes and open Enemies Goods saving unto his Majesty and his lawful Officers and unto all other Person or Persons Bodies Politick and Corporate all Rights Requisites and Duties due or usual answered out of all Prizes And we hereby command all Officers of all our Ports Harbours and Havens within our Jurisdiction throughout this Realm to admit the said Captain Francis Oliver and his Companies Ships and Goods from time to time to pass and repass come and go without molestation or trouble And that all Commanders of Forts and all other Officers of his Majesties loving Subjects to be aiding and assisting unto him in execution and furtherance of the Premisses whatsoever and as often as occasion shall require And lastly we pray all Foreign Princes States and Potentates to defend protect assist and favour the said Captain his Ships and Goods when and as often as he shall come into their respective Coasts and Harbours This our Commission to continue during pleasure Given at Kilkenny the last of December 1642. Was signed Mountgarret Hugo Armachanus Gormanston Johan Episc. Clonfertensis Nic. Plunket Patr. Darcy James Cusack Jeffry Brown And as to Civils they had their Officers of State Justices of Oyer and Terminer and of the Peace with their Courts of Judicature in several kinds and Councils Supreme County Provincial and on occasion National this being as Parliamentary called their General Assembly They had their Negotiations also abroad and from abroad and by Envoys Agents and publick Ministers Extraordinary and Resident they receiv'd the sense of other Princes and return'd their own being also by those Princes treated at home in like manner as if they had been some State absolute or more considerable of which read the Appendix All the subsequent Acts being derived from the Orders establish'd at Kilkenny the 24th of October 1642. By what I have mention'd you may see how the Rebels endeavour'd to get credit abroad and repute at home managing their Concerns with so much subtilty as having them anvil'd in every Covent nothing was omitted to mature their designs or colour what they had now begun with the fairest pretence whilst the State in the interim through the distractions in England daily increasing which gave fresh fuel to the Rebels presumption were so straitned for want of Supplies that the Lords Justices having by all the ways imaginable represented as well to his Majesty as to the Parliament the miserable condition they
of their Interest and security Each Party arrived at Oxford near the midst of April the Confederate Agents got thither soonest having less Remora's in their dispatch The Confederates as men who thought themselves possessed of the whole strength and Power of the Kingdom and the Kings condition in England so weak as he would buy their assistance at any rates demanded upon the Matter the total alteration of Government both in Church and State the very form of making and enacting Laws which is the foundation of Government and which had been practis'd ever since the Reign of King H. 7. must be abolished and instead of Liberty or Toleration for the exercise of the Romish Religion they insisted on such Priviledges Immunities and Power as would have amounted at best but to a Toleration of the Protestant Religion and that no longer then they should think fit to consent to it On the other hand the Committee of Parliament as men who too much felt the smart and anguish of their late sufferings undervalued and condemned the Irish as inferior to them in Courage and Conduct and as possessed of much greater Power by the Cessation then they could retain in War very earnestly prest the execution of the Laws in force Reparation for the dammages they had sustain'd disarming the Irish in such manner and to such a degree as it might not be hereafter in their Power to do more mischief and such other Conditions as People who are able to contend are not usually perswaded to submit unto which the Committee at Oxford for Irish Affairs insisted on with powerful Reasons and Arguments In these so different and distant Applications they who were sent as moderate Men from the Council knew not how to behave themselves but enough discovered that they had not the confidence in the Irish as to be willing that they should be so far trusted that the performance of their Duty should depend onely on their Affection and Allegiance But that there should be a greater Restraint upon them then they were inclin'd to submit to otherwise that the Protestant Religion and English Interest would be sooner rooted out by the Peace they proposed then it could be by the War It is very true that the Irish Agents demean'd themselves to his Majesty with great shew of Modesty and Duty they were Men that lack'd neither Art nor Behaviour and confessed that they believ'd that the Demands they were enjoyn'd to insist upon were such as his Majesty could not consent unto and that the present condition of his Affairs was not so well understood by them or by those who sent them before their coming out of Ireland as it now was which if it had been they were confident they should have had such Instructions as would better have complied with their own Desires and his Majesty's Occasions and therefore frankly offer'd to return and use their utmost Endeavours to incline the Confederate Council whose Deputies they were and who then exercised the supream Power over the Confederate Catholicks of that Kingdom to more Moderation and to return their full submission and obedience to his Majesty upon such Conditions as his Goodness would consent unto for their security But how little of this was perform'd you shall find in the sequel of the Story however the King sent his Command the 16th of Feb. 164. to the Marquess of Ormond to continue and renew their Cessation for another year and likewise a Commission under the Great Seal of England to make a full Peace with his Catholick Subjects upon such Conditions he found agreeable to the publick Good and Welfare and might produce such a Peace and Union in that Kingdom as might vindicate his Regal Power and Authority and suppress the Rebels in England and Scotland And so his Majesty dismissed the Catholick Agents with demonstration of much Grace and Confidence with this good Council which he most pathetically poured out to them at their departure That they should not forget the preservation of the Nation and Religion which they professed and were so zealous for in Ireland depended upon the preservation of his just Rights and Authority in England That they saw his Subjects of Scotland contrary to all Obligations had invaded England and joyned with those Rebels against him who without that assistance would have been speedily reduced to their obedience And therefore if his Catholick Subjects of Ireland made haste upon such Conditions as he might then grant without prejudice to himself and which should be amply sufficient for the security of their Fortunes Lives and Exercise of their Religion to assist him whereby he might be enabled by God's Blessing to suppress that Rebellion they might confidently believe he would never forget to whose Merit he owed his Preservation and Restauration and it would then be in his absolute Power to vouchsafe Graces to them to compleat their happiness and which he gave them his Royal Word he would then dispence in such manner as should not leave them disappointed of any of their just and full Expectations But if by insisting on such Particulars as he could not in Conscience consent to and their Consciences obliged them not to ask or on such as though he could himself be content to yield to yet in that Juncture of Time would bring such great damage to him that all the Supplies they could give or send to him could not countervail and might be as beneficially granted to them hereafter when he might better do it they should delay their joyning with him and so look on till the Rebel's Power prevail'd against him in England and Scotland and suppress'd his Party in those Kingdoms it would then be too late for them to give him help and they would quickly find their Strength in Ireland but an imaginary Support for his or their own Interest and that they who with much difficulty had destroyed him would without any considerable Opposition ruine their Interest and root out their Religion with their Nation from all the Dominions which should be subject to their exorbitant Jurisdiction How much of this prov'd a Prophesie their sad Experience knows and the World cannot but take notice of Soon after the Confederate's Agents were dismissed the Protestant's Committee of Parliament who had managed their Scene with much Courage and Integrity drew off with the King's Favour and Promise to do the utmost he could for them In the managing of which Affairs if they had not been very resolute arm'd with much Truth they would certainly have fall'n under many Inconveniencies For besides what they met with at Oxford they had still Correspondence and accordingly acted as they were animated by a Party of the Protestant Committee of the Parliament of Ireland then resident in Dublin who that they might decline the height of what those at Oxford proposed were tempted by an Order of the Council-Board to certifie Whether the 24 Propositions of his Majesty's Protestant Agents of Ireland presented to
should happen which they wished God would avert they should pray and conjure the Romish Clergy of England that that of the Maccabees might be recorded of them to future Ages Erat pro uxoribus filiis pro fratribus cognatis minor solicitudo maximus vero primus pro sanctitate erat timor Templi And this was the Answer delivered to the Commissioners of Trust upon the 5th day of November 1650. at Galway by the Bishops of Killala Ferns Kilmacduogh Clonfert Kilfinara and Dromore after several and long Conferences with the Commissioners of Trust who were Authorised by the Nation unto the Proposals presented by the Commissioners to the Committee of the Congregation the 29th of Octob. 1650. Here we cannot avoid observing by the express words of the Conclusion upon their Reasons in their Conference with the Commissioners that though they seem'd to desire that the Marquis of Clanrickard whose zeal to the Romish Religion and Interest in the Nation was so notorious and confessed that they durst not publickly repine at his known affection and integrity to the King might govern the Nation with the consent of all Parties and that the Kings Authority in the Lord Lieutenant might be left in him yet they declared they meant it should onely be until an Assembly which they well knew by the express terms of the Articles of Peace could be onely lawfully conven'd by the Lord Lieutenant and then that Assembly should judge of the Peoples preservation and to decree and order what should be the best and safest for the defence of the Nation touching the Kings Authority to be kept over them the Peace to be asserted and made good or to renew the Association or any thing else they should find best and most expedient So that they intended no other Honour to the Marquis of Clanrickard than that by his countenance and reputation they might perswade the Lord Lieutenant to leave the Kings Authority behind him and that he should call an Assembly which they would otherwise do themselves which they were sure should be constituted for the most part of such Men as would follow their Dictates by which himself should be divested of that Power and the King deposed from any further Dominion over them when they perswade any foreign Prince to take them into his Protection which practice they quickly set on foot And for the further manifestation of their Affection and Loyalty to the King which they cannot endure should be called yet in question it is observable that these Men who had so often contradicted and controuled the express Acts of every Assembly that had been convened since the beginning of these Troubles and now commanded the People under pain of damnation not to yield any obedience to the King's Authority in his Lieutenant and declared that they could not with the safety of their Consciences consent to the Propositions which he had lately made for the uniting the Nation in defence of the Peace so advantagious to their Liberty and Religion which the Commissioners intrusted by and for the Nation thought so reasonable These Men I say made no scruple of professing and declaring that if an Assembly upon due consideration of their state and condition should find it the best way for their safety and preservation to make an Agreement with the Enemy they would not hinder the People from compounding with them for the safety of their Lives and States Which being seriously considered we cannot sufficiently wonder at the strange stupid resignation of their Understandings who believed or rather at the wonderful contempt of those Understandings which would be perswaded to believe that this Congregation had loyal Purposes toward the King or that they never intended to hinder the Assembly or give Law to the People when they cancell'd all fundamental Laws broke through all Acts of their own Assembly and forbad the People to pay any obedience to the King's Vicegerent who had only the lawful Power of Government over them The more extravagant and unreasonable these Proceedings were of the Congregation and Clergy the more confident many honest and wise Men were that the Assembly of the Nation would regulate and controul that il-limited Power and utterly dis-avow all that they had done and therefore they who were exceedingly offended and enraged against the Congregation were solicitous and importunate with the Lord Lieutenant to call an Assembly And though he had too much experience of the Nature and Temper of the People and of the transcendent Power the Clergy should still have over any Assembly or at least over the People when the Assembly had done what it could to hope for any good effect from it And though he saw he should thereby the more expose his own Honour and which he considered more the Dignity of his Master to new Insolencies yet since he resolved to leave the Kingdom himself and was only un-resolved whether he should leave the King's Authority behind him liable to the same Indignities and Affronts in the Person of the Marquess of Clanrickard which it had been subject to in his own and could have no kind of assurance that it should not but by the Professions and Protestations of an Assembly he did resolve to call one and issued out his Letters for their meeting upon the 15th of November 1650. at Loghreogh where they met accordingly And the Bishops for removing as they said of any Jealousies that any might apprehend of their Proceedings declared and protested That by their Excommunication and Declaration at James-town they had no other aim than the preservation of the Catholick Religion and the People and that they did not purpose to make any visible Usurpation on his Majesty's Authority nor on the Liberty of the People confessing that it did not belong to their Jurisdiction so to do With which Protestation so contrary to what they had done and which in truth they had so often made even at the time they did all things contrary to it the Assembly was satisfied and did not so much as make another Protestation that the Bishops had done what they ought not to do nor exact a Promise from them that they would not do the like in time to come So that the Lord Lieutenant was resolv'd to look no more for satisfaction from them nor expose the King's Authority any further by leaving any Deputy behind him but prepared for his departure When the Assembly understood his Resolution and saw plainly that he was even ready to depart his Goods and many of his Servants being on Ship-board they sent four Members the Lord Dillon Clanrickard c. of their House to him at Kilcogan with an Instrument in writing bearing date from Loghreogh the 7th of December in which they repeated concerning the Excommunication and Declaration what the Bishops had protested in that Assembly and of his Excellency's Letter dated the 16th of November last recommending to them as the chief End for which that Assembly was
and weakly attempted though that was not as it seems to determin here but as a place more combustible and fit for fewel to extend to Ireland carefully provided against by Proclamations if not since relaxed The Management of which Affairs fell to be very difficult on those then at the Helm which I cannot but say some might have more easily carried on yet when it shall be impartially considered I believe the caution and prudence of the State then will in their Acts to Posterity appear more significant and valuable than Malice or ingratitude can justly sully them with Besides what Exigences what Misapprehensions what Straights did these daily encounter in their own and the State Affairs supportable by none that had not been of an even and great Courage is not to be passed over Yet as to the Integrity of their Service few ever waded through their Task with greater Acquiescency what ever hath been their misfortune to be censur'd at Pleasure That being their aim which was their Glory His Majesties Honour and the Protestants Support how slenderly soever the Merit of that Service hath been since looked on in their Posterity To whom little hath been indulg'd Praeter Nomen Famam ea quoque a multis calcata And as then so since the State hath labour'd under great Difficulties many pangs and throws to Establish the Settlement of Ireland witness all those Interests which his Majesty in his Declaration for the Settlement of Ireland crouding one upon another carefully and with singular caution as well provided for as could reasonably be expected after so great Troubles and Confusions and such blessed Circumstances of his Restauration Though how observed by the Court of Claims is not my work to insist on that having been with singular Perspicuity and Judgment spoken to at large by the Speaker of the House of Commons in Ireland and since then by the Adventurers Case Stated c. The state of the Question arising chiefly from the distinction of Nocent and Innocent In reference whereunto First some were to be considered as fit to be restored to their Estates who not only gave early evidences of their Crimes but also persever'd in their Loyalty As 2. others who submitted to the Peace without Apostacy And 3. such as being transported into Foraign Parts united and served his Majesty through many difficulties and accepted not of other satisfaction As 4. others who in an especial manner merited the restoring of their Estates which Grace and unparalel'd Favour whether sufficiently refflected or no by the Confederates took off many of those who by the Declaration were to be Nocent as all of the Rebels Party before 1643. As also such as enjoy'd their Estates in the Rebels Quarters except the Inhabitants of Cork and Youghall or those who entred into the Roman Catholick Confederacy before the Peace 1648. adhering to the Nuncio opposing the Kings Authority Excommunicating such as adhered to the King impowering Commissioners to treat with any Papal Power or bringing into Ireland Foraign Forces As also such as had been Wood Kerns or Tories before the Marquess of Clanrikards leaving the Government on whom the Letter of Condemnation is writ in their foreheads as having been not only eminently Guilty of that horrid and unprovoked Rebellion but also active in the very Conduct of it as Generals Lieutenants and Major Generals Councellors in the Supream Assembly c. though many of these since enjoy a plentiful Estate In this War the Souldiers were forced on many sad inevitable streights Yet their Gallantry Courage and Patience carried them on so unanimously as in all the Encounters they had with the Rebels as far as an honourable Person writ they never writes he receiv'd any Scorn or Defeat and what was more without any assistance either from the meer Irish or English Irish that were Gentlemen of Quality In as much as one who knew as well the Genius as the Progress of the Irish in his excellent Speech to the Lord Lieutenant since publisht in Print thought it no Scandal to affirm That amongst all the Persons that have been restored as Innocent we cannot saith he understand of one neither can we say upon our own knowledge and we come from all parts of the Kingdom that any one of them from the 23. of October 1641. to September 1653. ever drew a Sword against the Irish in Rebellion or ever assisted our English Forces in prosecution of them Nor is it to be thought strange That none of the Irish gave any assistance to his Majesties Forces for that besides those Decrees of Salamanca c. Cited by Philip Sullevan mention'd in our State of Ireland before the Insurrection To this History Mahony in his Disputatio Apologetica Pag. 43. having sullied much Paper in quoting Bulls against English Hereticks invading Ireland there insists upon it That it was then also to be added as altogether certain that the Irish are engaged by a Divine Human and Natural Precept unanimously to joyn to extirpate Hereticks and to shun Communion with them and much more to be obliged not to assist them with Aid Councel Favour Arms or any Accommodation c. against Catholicks which Principle of Mahony Walsh Fol. 741. tells us with his Book was condemned to be burn'd by order of the Supream Council of the Confederates at Kilkenny Yet we do not find whilst the Irish were themselves that in Detestation to Mahony's Principle they ever assisted the English nay Father Nich. Redmond Secretary to the Congregation giving Walsh an account of the Acts of that Congregation tells him That they were never formal ones seriously digested and couched by select Committees nor were they the Principal Scope of that meeting whereby it may be conjectured without violence to their good Intentions that their Censure on Mahony's Book was rather a Fucus cast on their present Complexion than any abhorrency thereof what at other times they Solemnly intended being ever seriously digested And for those who joyn'd with his Excellency after the Peace of 1646. who would be thought to have merited thereby after they had assumed a Contradistinct Government and in defence thereof maintain'd a War and which is worse a Cessation with Detention of his Majesties Forts and the Inheritances of his Subjects It cannot be said without the forfeiture of our Reason that their pure Loyalty but self-preservation engaged them thereunto For seeing how resolute the Parliament of England was to pursue that War their security could be no where but in siding with the King And that this not affection or sence of what they had done was the grounds of that Compliance appears in their subsequent Acts shamefully afterwards diserting the Marquess of Ormond fixing upon him incredible Scandals when he had exposed himself at their request to all the inconveniencies imaginable for their Peace and his Majesties Interest First parting with the English under his Command an evidence that those were
they whom they still endeavoured to root out and then ordering their Bishops and Commissioners of Trust to share in his Councels and the management of Affairs At last ejecting him as questionable before his Majesty for his injuries to them and his ill Government whilst they assumed the Management of all in acting That no Temporal Government or Jurisdiction should be assumed kept or executed in that Kingdom or any Province or County thereof other then what is approved or instituted by their General Assembly or Supream Council which was indeed the first Common-Wealth set up in his Majesties Empire And yet these are those who were receiv'd as Penitents to Mercy strange Penitents Who after so much blood and spoil of Innocents such sins against Indulgence and Oaths of Obedience and Submission were so far from satisfying their wrong doings that they were never brought to profess themselves Guilty whose Penitence seems to be only in that they fail'd to accomplish their evil in fulness Twice Conspir'd they a Peace the better to accomplish to the utmost what they might not need further Penitence thereby foolishly forfeiting all the Grace which they might have expected from his Majesty though amongst the General there were some who upon the Peace made with them honestly perform'd what they had promised to him though with inconveniency enough to themselves whose demeanour could not but be thought very worthy of his Protection Justice and Favour as they find fully enlarg'd in the Act of Settlement And here I cannot but take notice that though some would impute the Irregularity of these Proceedings to the Clergy only who indeed were the main spoak in the Wheel yet some of the Committee of Trust and of the Nobility who ever else were free were also privy thereunto how close soever they behav'd themselves as appears in their cherishing privately the ill Humors and Jealousies of the People and their averseness to punish the greatest exorbitancy wherein the Clergy were concern'd without the Cooperation of the Bishops whose consent they were sure never to have Indeed I dare not but say having it from an excellent Pen that some of the Irish Discent have in the late Troubles as in all Ages well deserv'd of the Crown though it may wrack the Memory of the strictest observer to enumerate many few having assisted the Protestants against the Mighty However great strugling there hath been That the Peace of 1648. should be inviolable whereas besides other important Reasons referring to their abominable Reservation That if those Articles of Peace were not in every particular for their Advantage performed they would not be concluded thereby It must be considered that when the King was necessitated to comply with the Rebels he was then under sad streights The odious Court by which his Sacred Life was afterwards taken away being then erected So as no body could wonder that he desir'd though upon difficult Conditions to get such an united Power of his own Subjects as might have been able with Gods blessing to have prevented that infamous and horrible Parricide Yet then in that Article of time the Irish prest for the conclusion of the Peace Whereas if they had been truly Loyal and Unanimous Generous Souls would never have took that opportunity to have enhaunc'd their Price But in submission to what Grace they might afterwards find freely have waded through the difficulties they were call'd to having long before promised a vigorous Assistance which they never attempted Though many of these since must confess that they have been as well provided for as after so great Troubles and Confusions and such blessed Circumstances of his Majesties Restauration they could reasonably expect And yet the bleeding Iphigenia that piece of Ingratitude and Scandal will tell you That the Body of a noble antient Catholick Nation Ireland clad all in red Robes is not now to be offer'd up as Victime but is already Sacrificed not to a Prophane Diety but to the living God for Holy Religion As if after all the Indulgence which hath been and is vouchsaf'd that Nation nothing attends it but Misery and Ruine a Trumpet certainly to another Insurrection But to proceed the success of our Armies considering the numbers they often oppos'd exceeds a common Belief in as much as some have extenuated the Glory of their Service by the Cowardliness of the Enemy who seldom made a noble or brave Defence save where an extremity reduced them to an exigence or a surprize made them cruel But on this subject Sir Francis Bacon in a Letter to the Earl of Essex going for Ireland observes That the justest Triumphs that the Romans in their greatest Greatness did obtain and that whereof the Emperors in their Stiles took Additions and Denominations were of such an Enemy that is People barbarous and not reduced to Civility magnifying a kind of Lawless Liberty Prodigal of Life hardness in Body fortified in Woods and Bogs placing both Justice and Felicity in the sharpness of their Swords It being a higher Point of Honour to reduce such to Civility than to be enrich'd by a Praeditory War I am sensible that the undertaking of this War hath passed with many as an opportunity to enrich the Servitour nor can it be denied but that reward is the just expectation of Merit But when it shall be consider'd at what rates Debenters were paid off what hardship the Souldiers encountred how many in Rebellion shar'd the mercy of a Gracious Prince what were the Difficulties attended all in Government it cannot be denied but more then a Praeditory War even the Establishment of a Religion and Nation the Irish would have extirpated the settling of his Majesties Rights and the reducing of a People loose in their Principles to Civility were the main Ends of this War to which his Majesty was forc'd by the causeless and inhuman Insurrection of the Irish In reference to which the Rebels being before prepar'd thereunto soon Marshall'd a considerable Force But though it was for their Altars and Inheritance as they pretended never any Nation fell under greater Pusillanimity which some impute to their want of Warlick Provisions their ignorance in the Discipline of their Army the lack of unity amongst themselves and the Supplies of the English ever found of all necessaries But certainly the greatest Defect was in the badness of their Cause which Conor O Mahon in his Disputatio Apologetica urges from an Ethnick Poet led meerly by the light of Nature is most material Frangit attollit vires milite Causa Quae nisi justa subest excutit Arma Pudor For it must be allowed not to be denied by the Ingenious that the Natives have Courage and Abilities sufficient few in their Imployments abroad proving better Souldiers more temperate better vers'd in the World or readier to be put on the forwardest Action Here I might enlarge much in the Encomiums of those who so vigorously oppos'd them though at length the Irish got
Courage or rather from the certainty of what they were sure to suffer grew desperate extremity forcing that no sence of Honour before could Animate And yet then the Conduct and vigor of the English appear'd such as the Rebels though in some skirmishes assisted by surprisals prevail'd they could never arrive at a perfect Defeat Here though I am sometimes lead to mention eminent Persons in their Places I am yet forced to omit many whose Offices and Names I cannot attain to which by their Prowess and Virtue would have added Date to the History And yet I know some Persons are so apprehensive of their Merits that not to express them in Terms aequivalent may be worse than to omit them willingly I insist on None with a Disrespect to others Here I cannot without injury to a Reverend Prelate but take notice what I find clearly and most eloquently exprest by Dr. Loftus Vicar-General of Ireland in a Speech at a Visitation in the Diocess of Clogher touching Dr. John Lesley Lord Bishop of Clogher who during the first fury of the Rebellion in Ireland vigorously oppos'd the Rebels and when Sir Ralph Gore a worthy Servitor at Machrebeg and many other British Inhabitants were reduced to great extremity by a long Siege and necessity of a suddain Surrender of themselves without hope of Quarter to the enraged Cruelty of the Irish He sallied forth amidst the Flames of the whole Country and reliev'd him at that time reduc'd to such Streights as they were forc'd to cast their dishes into Ball And the Laggan Forces consisting of three Regiments refus'd to hazard them for the Relief of the Besieged whilst the Bishop with his Company Tenants and Friends attempted their Relief and perfected it evidencing at that instant as much Personal Valour as Regular Conduct yet mention'd with much astonishment Affairs thus carried on its evident how the Royal Throne by whom the Army advanc'd is justly to be vindicated from those Calumnies some would asperse it with as if they had not proceeded by his Majesties Command So impudently did these Rebels affront not his Authority only in his Instruments at the Helm but thereby gave his Proclamation Speeches Acts and Vows the Contradiction And when his Execellency had made the first Peace with them notwithstanding his Majesties Letter To proceed no further in Treaty with the Rebels that Letter as Pernachief well observes having been sollicited by the Scots in whose Power he was then to make their War more valuable The Irish yet so ill managed that condescention as nothing in History equals their ingratitude that thence the Integrity of the Prime Minister of State being to them and his Master Signal their Defection remains a Blot to Posterity Indeed it is seldom seen that where a People by Insurrection obtain their first pretentions but they aspire to greater Whence it is observed of Hen. 7. that he was ever in the Head of his Army lest Rebels prevailing at the beginning they might soon rowl into an Hoast Nor is it found that ever he complied with their requests how plausible soever least they might be thought to purchase that by their Insurrection which they did not dare to impetrate by their Prayers Upon which Account it may be thought his late Majesty desired to go for Ireland Conceiving that the Rebels were capable of no greater Terrour than by the Presence of their Lawful King in the Head of an Army to chastize them though the consequence of it were otherwise apprehended and his Journey stay'd thereupon He not being so weary of his Life as to hazard it impertinently whereby the Parliament conceiving by a Commission under the great Seal of England that they had Power to Advise Order and Dispose of all things concerning the Government and Defence of Ireland wholly applied themselves to that Work till the unhappy Difference betwixt his Majesty and them fell so considerable as though they sent sometimes scattering Supplies the wants of the Army grew clamorous Yet in the end they so far prevail'd as to declare the Rebels subdued In accomplishing of which so many changes such variety of matter and several alterations of Scenes happen'd as a Pen arm'd with the Rhethorick of the best Historian is but sufficient to Register them to Posterity Inferior Pens being probable to lessen so considerable a Story However it is now fallen to my Lot it may be thought voluntarily indeed thus much I must alledge for my self that besides a strong impulse so many and considerable Persons have drawn me to it that without a more than ordinary Hardiesse I could not well resist their Importunity which if any judge too easie a Flexibility I submit to their Censure so they think the Work shun'd by many really necessary considering the affront some bold Pens have offer'd to the Sincerity of the State and their Gallantry who in Honour of the Empire have sustain'd the Insolencies of a sad and unnatural War which if I do not express answerable to the subject it may satisfie the Reader that my aim is to be intelligible and significant though rude and plain Amongst several encouragements I shall here only insert One from a Person better vers'd in the Language he writes than English Vir Clarissime TAntâ fide industriâ tantoque successu finem imposuisti operi diù expectato quod texit nobis Hibernicae Rebellionis Historiam quae coepit Anno a reparatâ Salute 1641. Octobris 23. Gratulor tibi hocce calamo quo è tenebris eruisti veritatem penè obrutam per hujus AEtatis negligentiam in apertum protulisti Non puto quicquam unquam horridius funestius sua origine suo progressu eventu excogitatum fuisse ab orbe condito quam quod machinati sunt Authores execrabilis in Britannos Protestantes quibus sola defensionis Arma erant in sua Innocentia cedunt huic Immanitati Siculae Vesperae Rabies Paparum in Convallenses Pidemontanos Laniena Parisiensis Non queo satis praedicare nostra tempora quae tulerunt te virum Qui vivis coloribus graphice depingeret exprimeret palam faceret Sicariorum coepta incoepta complexus facinora nefanda singulosque actus horrendae Lanienae In qua tamen tanquam in re benè gesta triumphant ejus Patroni Mahony Alii Satanicarum Artium Consortes perinde homicidarum percussorum Advocati ut ulterius animos addant contribulibus suis perstandi in Incaepto ut Haereticorum quos vocant Jugum semel excussum non admittant unquam iterum nec permittant sed potius Eligant sibi Regem Catholicum vernaculum seu naturalem Hibernum Qui Eos Catholicè gubernari possit quemadmodum Loquuntur in sua exhortatione ad Catholicos utique Jesuita Hibernus Mac-Mahon ut recte observat Walsh insinuavit quod liceat occidere non solum omnes Protestantes sed quoscunque Hibernos de Romanis Catholicis Qui starent à partibus Coronae Regis
denying it to the last with more sense of conscience saith his Majesty in his Answer to the Parliament's two last Papers concerning Ireland than they who examined him expected However one Plunket having taken an old Broad Seal from an absolete Patent out of Farnham-Abbey and fixed it to a forged Commission it to seduce the Vulgar into an opinion of their Loyalty when they had first incited them to a Rebellion as in a parallel Case his Excellency takes notice of in his Answer to their Declaration at James-town And saith his Majesty in his Declaration to the Parliament's Answer at Newmarket the 9th of March 1641. We must think our self highly and causlesly injured in our Reputation if any Declaration Action or Expression of the Irish Rebels any Letter from Count Rosettie to the Papists for Fasting and Prayer or from Tristram Whitcombe of strange Speeches utter'd in Ireland shall beget any jealousie or mis-apprehension in our Subjects of our Justice Piety and Affection it being evident to all understandings that those mischievous and wicked Rebels are not so capable of great advantage as by having their false Discourses so far believed as to raise fears and jealousies to the distraction of this Kingdom the only way to their security Wherefore the Lords Justices and Councel detesting such Umbrages the 30th of October publisht a Proclamation to take off the people from being seduced by seditious and scandalous reports father'd on the Crown And that none ignorantly involv'd in so detestable a Guilt as the publick Conspiracy might suffer the State yet further to manifest their desire of reducing all into a general obedience having never drawn his Majesty's Sword upon jealousies or presumptions till the highest Extremities and unparallel'd Outrages compell'd them thereunto publisht the first of November a Proclamation declaring That all in the Counties of Meath Westmeath Lowth and Longford being no Free-holders nor now in prison who had taken any Goods from his Majesty's faithful Subjects not having shed blood in the Action and came in within ten days after this Proclamation should be receiv'd to his Majesty's mercy and no further prosecuted Which as others of the like nature little prevail'd to un-deceive the Rebels they being before link'd in an un-dissolvible tye of Animosity and Superstition Thus every day notwithstanding that the Conspiracy was discovered and all endeavours used to reclaim them the Irish proceeded in their Massacres and Rebellion though they did not after the knowledge of the detection of their Plot execute so generally their Villany with such open slaughters and cruelties as they did at first but stripping wounding and turning the English and Protestants out of their Houses they sent them naked and desolate in miserable weather to Dublin where their numbers at length grew so burdensom as though Thousands were ship'd away soon after they arriv'd there and such as could serve in the Army were daily in-listed yet they brought so great an extremity and want of all provisions to Dublin as the Inhabitants were reduced to great exigencies inasmuch as the mercies of the Rebels were extream cruelty Thousands of the dispoiled English dying afterwards by lingring Diseases contracted by the inhumane and cruel usage of their Enemies Miseries still increasing the Lords Justices and Councel sent a second Dispatch to the King the 5th of November then in Scotland directing also their Letters to his Privy Councel in England there being an absolute necessity to invoke all Powers that might stand with his Majesty's Honour They then and not before directed Letters to the Speakers of both Houses of Parliament inclosing in those they writ to his Majesty what they had signified by Letters to the Lords of the Councel or to the Speakers of both Houses of Parliament About the 6th of November 1641. the Rebels of Cavan commanded by Philip Mac-Hugh Mac-Shane O Relie Knight of the Shire for that County and others of the Sept of O Relies proffer'd an humble Remonstrance so they entituled their presumptuous Paper to the Lords Justices and Council to be recommended by them to his Majesty which Dr. Jones and Mr. Waldrone then delivered to their Lordships the Doctor being obliged to that service He his Wife and Children lying at the Rebels mercy To which their Lordships answered with all the moderation and satisfaction that could stand with their Duty and the weak conditions of affairs in Dublin the safety whereof wholly depended on the gaining of time and saith my Author he assur'd himself the Remonstrants expected not any other Answer the Remonstrance being tendred rather to win upon the People whose cause they pleaded then to give any reasonable account or satisfaction to the Lords concerning their proceedings which yet their Lordships forthwith certifi'd with their Answer to the Lord Lieutenant to whom his Majesty had expresly commanded all Affairs of Ireland should be address'd However they during the presenting of this Remonstrance mustered their Forces summoning all from 16 to 60 years of Age to appear the Munday following at Virginia a Place distant from Cavan twelve miles and in the way to Dublin notwithstanding that they had impower'd Dr. Jones to assure their Lordships That their should be a cessation of all things until the return of their Lordships Answer Thus no faith or confidence could ever be reposed in them And afterwards it fell out that none were more treacherous and fierce than they as great inhumanity and cruelty being acted by them of Cavan as of any other Place that County by the 11th of December being wholly reduc'd into the hands of the Rebels excepting the two Castles of Keilagh and Crohan belonging to Sir Francis Hamilton Knight and Baronet and Sir James Craig Knight who so nobly defended each their own and alternatively succoured one another that they perpetually furnish'd the Rebels with work sufficient notwithstanding whatsoever Mulmore O Relie the Sheriff or Edmond O Relie his Father or Philip Mac-Hugh O Relie their chief Commander could possibly do with all their Horsemen whom these gallant men often beat though encounter'd with much disadvantage Sir Francis Hamilton not losing in the whole Service from the 23d of October 1641. to the 15th of June 1642. setting aside such as were cut off in stragling more than five men belonging to this Castle one of them being a Serjeant who being taken at an advantage was barbarously mangled with thirty six wounds so that all that the Rebels could do effected no Conquest on these Places till the 8th of April 1642. that Sir James Craig a Gentleman of singular and the best abilities died and the Store in both Castles fell short Water growing scarce a mortal infectious sickness increasing the Rebels having tainted their Well with dead Carcases And now the care of both Castles fell unto Sir Hamilton's Charge which being impossible to be relieved from Dublin or to hold out longer their straits daily increasing both these Castles were delivered up the 4th of
one Body under the style of the Confederate Roman Catholicks of Ireland binding themselves also in that Confederacy by the following Oath of Association I A. B. do in the presence of Almighty God and all the Saints and Angels in Heaven promise vow swear and protest to maintain and defend as far as I may with my Life Power and Estate the publick and free exercise of the true and Roman Catholick Religion against all Persons that shall oppose the same I further swear that I will bear Faith and Allegiance to our Soveraign Lord King Charles his Heirs and Successors and that I will defend Him and Them as far as I may with my Life Power and Estate against all such Persons as shall attempt any thing against their Royal Persons Honours Estates and Dignities and against all such as shall directly or indirectly endeavour to suppress their Royal Prerogatives or do any Act or Acts contrary to Regal Government as also the Power and Priviledges of Parliament the lawful Rights and Priviledges of the Subjects and every Person that makes this Vow Oath and Protestation in whatsoever he shall do in the lawful pursuance of the same And to my Power as far as I may I will oppose and by all means and ways endeavour to bring to condign punishment even to the loss of Life Liberty and Estate all such as shall either by Force Practice Counsels Plots Conspiracies or otherwise do or attempt any thing to the contrary of any Article Clause or any thing in this present Vow Oath or Protestation contain'd So God help me This is the Oath the Confederates thought so loyal so worthy their owning whereas never any thing was more pernicious more destructive to his Majesty and his Protestant Subjects the close of it after all their insinuating and fair pretensions of Faith and Allegiance to their Soveraign his Heirs and lawful Successors vowing to bring to condign punishment all that should attempt any thing to the contrary of any Article therein whereas the first thing they insist on in this Vow is the free exercise of the Catholick Roman Religion which if the King shall not admit of He is by the issue of this Vow and Protestation to be oppos'd all being to be oppos'd that shall be against do or attempt any thing to the contrary of any Article Clause or any thing in this present Vow Oath or Protestation contain'd And if in a more favourable sence this were not as to his Majesty to be so interpreted yet his Protestant Subjects were doubtless to be fallen upon with fire and sword resisting the Ends the Rebels propos'd to themselves by this Oath and without which no Peace was to be accepted How loyal and acceptable this could be to a Protestant Prince who in testimony of his Faith laid down his life is legible without Spectacles so that in conclusion this Oath could really deceive none but those who seeing will not see and hearing will not understand Thus their strength notwithstanding whatsoever his Majesty had propos'd in his Proclamation by endeavouring to break it was united their Armies were now formed the most considerable Persons amongst them had openly declared themselves and the meanest of their Souldiers were flesht in the slaughter of the English they had likewise almost all their Goods in their possession and the strongest Places of the Kingdom with the whole Countrey at their Devotion so as they now counted themselves powerful enough to go through with the Work and resolv'd to expel all the British and Protestants out of the Kingdom to make themselves absolute Masters or there to die ingloriously as Traitors and Murtherers which is fallen to their lot for few of those inhumane Butchers have come with dry throats to their Graves there being no more ordinary dispensation to be observ'd in the Revolutions of things here below than returns of blood for blood their blood being violently to be poured forth who have maliciously contrived or wantonly delighted in the slaughter of others which will appear by the sequel of the Story Though the Polititian's Catechism a Piece of as much Venom as Art or Malice can connect would insinuate that the Murthers and Massacres done in Ireland by Protestants far exceeded without comparison those committed by Catholicks as well in respect of brutishness as numerousness I may admit that many things contrary to the Law of Arms and Christianity during the Rebellion were severely committed by the English But then it must be considered That whatsoever was rashly done by them was either acted in open Hostility or had the anguish and memory of former Villanies first commenc'd on their Relations Friends or Countreymen without the least provocation for their ground instigating them thereunto Inasmuch as Mulmore O-Relie O-Sule-van and others being at a Meeting at London immediately after the King 's happy Restauration a Colonel a Person of great Ingenuity and exemplary Vertue who had serv'd faithfully against the Irish coming into their company was acquainted by them that they were met together to draw up a Remonstrance of the Cruelties the English Army had offer'd to the Irish which say they indeed nothing concern'd him he having been a noble and generous Enemy Upon which he advis'd them to desist in that they might be certain to have an Answer much to their dis-advantage considering that if any Violencies or Irregularities were offer'd they might thank themselves in respect that after Castles or any Places were delivered up upon Composition it was a usual Custom with them to spoil the Meal and Food which they should have left entire and to have wet the Powder as also to have made the Guns un-serviceable all which were violations of Articles no ways justifiable and might require a severe return Upon which they being confounded this worthy Person heard no more of their Design And for what the Polititian's Catechism would infer from a Daughter of O-Hara an Irish Lord being barbarously murther'd as a President for what succeeded it is evident that the Rebellion commenc'd in blood Rowry Mac-Guire that day in which the Rebellion began hanging not less than 18 Persons in the Church of Clownish and afterwards burnt it several other Examples may be produc'd of the same nature And for what this insolent Assertor braves the World with from the Irish Remonstance offer'd by Viscount Preston and Sir Robert Talbot the 17th of March 1642. That they desired the Murtherers on both sides should be punished is mention'd but for a flourish those Testimones of their Cruelties being given in upon Oath in several Remonstrances which must remain an evidence to posterity of their Villany what-ever R. S. in his Collections of Murthers would by way of Recrimination charge the English with Inasmuch as what Cruelties he affirms to be acted after protection had been given and Articles at this or that Place allowed will be found upon due enquiry which they durst never stand to to be raised on breach of Faith
Rebels attesting that the 100000 l. borrowed of the Subscription-Money for Ireland they soon re-paid with advantage being then forc'd to make use of it to prepare a competent Army for the defence of the King and Kingdom without any prejudice to the Affairs of Ireland whose subsistence depends on the welfare of this In Answer to which it was replied That that Kingdom were the Money restored in the mean time suffered by that Diversion and that had the Lord Wharton's Forces been approved of there was no further security that those should have been sent for Ireland than other Forces that were rais'd for that purpose and yet imployed against his Majesty at Edge-hill the other Exceptions of the Parliament in his Majesty's Papers being also answer'd which begot a Reply not altogether pertinent in this place to pursue However the Parliaments imploying the 100000 l. contrary to the Interest of the foremention'd Act in the 17th year of Car. 1. with his Majesties full consent before he left the Parliament was the cause that it produced so little good effect for Ireland many of the Subscribers taking that occasion as others before had done upon his Majesties motion to go for Ireland to withdraw their subscriptions and others not to pay in their Money which was with so much Caution provided for and guarded with so many advantagious Circumstances for all the Adventurers as if it had been carried on and seasonably applied with that Care and Sincerity it ought to have been it would in a little time have reduc'd that whole Kingdom and have eas'd that poor People of many of those Calamities they have since endur'd The want of which put the Lords Justices and State on many difficulties Yet that something might seem to be done there was an Order of the Commons House of Parliament the 3d. of August 1642. That the Ministers about the City of London should be desired to exhort the People to bestow old Garments and Apparel upon the distressed Protestants in Ireland in reference to which the 19th of September following the Lord Mayor of London ordered that those Cloaths should be brought to Yorkshire-hall in Blackwel-hall to be ready for shipping them for Ireland and a vast Supply was brought in Charity never so much manifested its compassion as in that Cause which afterwards was entrusted to a Reverend Person who discharged his trust with singular Prudence and Integrity though as to the Army these Cloaths never reach'd or intended And now the Rebels finding their Strength much augmented by the unhappy differences in England their chief Contrivers of the Conspiracy the Clergy met at Kilkenny and there Established in a General-Congregation several Considerations for their future Government Upon which Proceedings and the validity of the 6th Article of those Prelate-Dignities and learned men the first General-Assembly at Kilkenny sate the 10th of November 1642. according to what Scobel gives us an account of Though Peter Walsh one of the Assembly certainly to be credited in his second part of the first Treaties of his History and vindication of the Loyal Formulary writes that the first General or National-Assembly of the Confederates began at Kilkenny the 24th of October 1642. and continued to the 9th of January following upon which day they were dissolved having constituted to succeed them the Supream Council of the Confederate Catholicks of Ireland and that they might be the better tied together with the Holy bond of Union and Concord as is expressed in the thirty third Article of the General Assembly and the third of the Congregation They framed the ensuing Oath of Association to be taken by all in that Confederacy The Preamble to the Oath of Association WHereas the Roman Catholicks of this Kingdom have been inforc'd to take Arms for the necessary defence and preservation as well of their Religion Plotted and by many foul Practises endeavour'd to be quite suppress'd by the Puritan Faction as likewise their Lives Estates and Liberties as 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 his Angels that I will during my life bear true Faith and Allegiance to my Soveraign 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 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 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 supream 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 this 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 Moreover I do further swear That I will not accept of or submit unto any Peace made or to be made with the said Confederate Catholicks without the consent and approbation of the general Assembly of the said Confederate Catholicks And for the preservation and strengthning of the Association and Union of the Kingdom that upon any Peace or Accommodation to be made or concluded with the said Confederate Catholicks as aforesaid I will to the utmost of my power insist upon and maintain the ensuing Propositions until a Peace as aforesaid be made and the Matters to be agreed upon in the Articles of Peace be establish'd and secured by Parliament So help me God and his holy Gospel The Propositions mention'd in the aforesaid Oath 1. THat the Roman Catholicks both Clergy and Laity to their several Capacities have free and publick Exercise of the Roman Catholick Religion and Function throughout the Kingdom in as full lustre and splendor as it was in the Reign of King Henry the 7th or any other Catholick King 's his Predecessors Kings of England and Lords of Ireland either in
remainder of English but by a Peace We find his Majesty being deluded by the first and believing the last to be conducing to the preservation of his Majesties Protestant Subjects is concluding of a Peace which will again admit those Irish Rebels to be Members of Parliament so that that Court which should afford relief for our Grievances will by their over-swaying Votes be our greatest Grievance Moreover we are too truly informed by divers of their own Party whose names if we should publish would be as great an ingratitude as folly the first in betraying those that obliged us the last in depriving our selves of all future Intelligence by them that they have vowed never to submit to an English or Protestant Government except they have liberty to exercise their Religion in Churches That the Forces of the Kingdom may be Train'd-Bands of their Men and that likewise those of their own Religion may be admitted to Places of Trust in the Common-wealth which they call modest and moderate demands though we hope they cannot seem so to any but themselves and their Clergy who we find do not think them enough being they may not have all their Church-Livings For we have certain intelligence that they have made a strong Faction as well among my Lord of Castlehaven's Soldiers as in all other parts of the Kingdom so that they are five parts of six who will fly out into a new action when they see a convenient time to execute their design which as yet they determine to forbear until they see a Peace concluded supposing that then the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland will intermix Irish and English without distinction to oppose the Scots and that by that means there will be a sufficient number of their Party in our Garrisons to master them which when they find an opportunity for they will certainly seize into their own hands upon notice whereof the Faction abroad will with all expedition apprehend the English in all parts and having accomplished this part of their design they will manifest that they are weary of the King of England's Government and that they will trust none of his Protestant Subjects among them for we are certainly informed that they will invite a Forreign Prince to take them into his protection unto whom they will deliver possession of what he pleases and will become his Subjects And lest that Princes Treasure should be exhausted by Wars in other places the Clergy have with the Pope's assistance raised amongst those of their own Calling and divers of the Gentry in Italy one hundred thousand pounds in money and a quantity of Arms and Ammunition that are now ready to be sent hither and they have employed one Doctor Duyer to go forthwith thither for it as also to get his Holiness to settle a course for the raising of more Money to be employed for the advancement of that which they call the Catholick Cause Therefore out of a true sense of our injuries already suffered and un-redressed with a right apprehension of inevitable ruine not onely to our Lives and Estates but likewise to the English Nation and Protestant Religion we have re-assum'd our Arms according to our Duty to God our King and Countrey with inviolable resolution to die or frustrate this devillish design And since those that die acting for the Gospel are as perfect Martyrs as those that die suffering for it we cannot but with joy embrace any effect that proceeds from so glorious a Cause Neither can this act be esteemed a crime in us since his Majesty upon the Rebels first Insurrection his Treasure being exhausted gave his Royal assent for the passing of an Act of Parliament wherein he granted to all his Subjects that would adventure money towards reducing of the Rebels Lands proportionable to the sum adventured which would fall to the Crown when the Conquest should be finished And the better to secure the Adventurers his Majesty obliged himself to make no Peace with the Rebels but with the advice and approbation of the Parliament of England and by that Act communicated to the Parliament that Power which before was solely in himself So that they not condescending to this Peace our imploying of their Aids and re-assuming of those Arms put into our hands by King and Parliament joyntly cannot be esteemed contradictory to his Majesty in regard that their joynt Act is so absolutely binding that neither of them severally can annull it as is evident in the Laws of the Realm Therefore if this War were onely Offensive yet even slander it self must acknowledge us innocent having so just a Cause so pious an Intention and so lawful an Authority much more it being Defensive and the Law both of God and Nature allowing every one to defend himself from violence and wrong Moreover the King must never expect any obedience from the Irish but what proceeds either from their Interest or Fear Through the first of these neither his Majesty or we can hope for assurance for not granting them all their desires their Interest which is more powerful with them than their Loyalty will make them throw off their subjection and to become absolute not scruple to destroy us Then to expect any security by their fears were frivolous for though we have found their Hearts as ill as their Cause yet they cannot be apprehensive of 2 or 3000 ill armed and unprovided men having all things necessary and so numerous a People at their devotion And lest our Enemies should scandalize us with breach of Faith in violating the pretended Cessation or with Cruelty in expelling the Irish Papists from our Garrisons who hitherto seemed adhering to us Concerning the first we declare That although our necessities did induce us to submit supposing the Cessation would have produced other effects as is before mentioned yet we had no power without Authority from King and Parliament joyntly to treat or yield to it or if it had been in our powers yet by the Rebels daily breaches of it we are disengaged from it Concerning the second we declare That our Garrison cannot be secured whilst so powerful and perfidious Enemies are in our bosomes Powerful being four to one in number more than the English Perfidious in their constant designs to betray us some whereof we will instance to convince their own Consciences and satisfie the World of our just proceedings One Francis Matthews a Franciscan Frier being wonderfully discovered in an Enigmatical Letter and as justly executed before his death confessed that he had agreed to betray the City of Cork to the Lord of Muskery which must necessarily infer that the chiefest and greatest part of that City were engaged in this Conspiracy for otherwise he could not so much as hope the accomplishment And if this had taken effect it had consequently ruin'd all the Protestants in the Province of Munster that being our chief Magazine and greatest Garrison Besides upon this occasion other Friers being examin'd upon Oath confessed that in
implorant demisse benedictionem obsecrantes Kilkenniae 7. Jan. 1645. Vestrae Sanctitatis ad Pedum Oscula But to proceed to the Peace in which all the Particulars which might concern the Interest and Security of either Party being maturely weighed and considered and then every Article being first read debated and approved in the general Assembly without one dissenting voice the whole was concluded and the Confederate Catholicks obliged to transport within a very short time an Army of 10000 Men into England for the Service and Relief of the King as by the succeeding Propositions with Colonel Fitz-Williams is fuller evident Fitz-Williams's Propositions about the Treaty with the Queen to bring Irish into England Col. Fitz-Williams humbly prays and propounds as followeth THat your Sacred Majesty will vouchsafe to prevail with his Majesty to condescend to the just Demands of his Irish Subjects the Confederate Catholicks in Ireland at least in private That upon the consideration thereof Colonel Fitz-Williams humbly propounds and undertakes with approbation of Mr. Hertogen now imployed Agent for the said Confederate Catholicks in Ireland to bring an Army of 10000 Men or more of the King's Subjects in his Kingdom of Ireland for the King's Service into England That Colonel Fitz-Williams undertakes for the sum of 10000 l. sterling to levy Ships and arm the 10000 Men and so proportionably for more or less and that the said Moneys may be paid into such hands as may be safe for your Majesty as well as ready for the said Colonel when it shall appear the said Army shall be in readiness to be transported into England That upon the Landing of the said Men there shall be advanced to the Colonel one months Pay for all the Army according to the Muster for the present support of the Army That Colonel Fitz-Williams may be Commander in Chief thereof and dispose of all the Officers and only be commanded by the King Prince and and qualified with such Benefits as have been formerly granted unto your Majesty's Generals that have commanded Bodies apart from the King 's own Army as the Earl of Kingston and others whereby the better to enable him in the Levies as well as in the general Conduct of the Business And in respect the Order gives no Power to the Irish therefore that the said Forces shall not by any Order whatsoever be divided at least that the Colonel may be supplied with a Body of 2000. to be ready at the Place of Landing That the Colonel may be provided with Arms and Ammunition or with Money requisite for himself to provide necessary Proportions for to bring with him That the Army shall be paid as other Armies of the King Having taken these Propositions into Consideration We have thought fit to testifie our Approbation and Agreement thereunto under our Sign Manual assuring what hath been desired of us therein shall be forthwith effectually endeavour'd and not doubting to the satisfaction of the Confederate Catholicks of Ireland and of the said Colonel so that we may justly expect an agreeable compliance and performance accordingly from all Parties in their several Concernments Henriette Marie All things thus stated and setled the Commissioners who had treated in the Peace were sent by and in the Name of the Assembly to Dublin where the Lord Lieutenant resided to sign the said Articles and to receive his Lordship's Confirmation of them And accordingly the Articles were the 30th of July 1646. interchangeably signed and perfected with all formality requisite notwithstanding his Majesty's Letter from Newcastle the 11th of June 1646. to treat no farther with the Rebels and shortly after they were with great Solemnity and Ceremony published and proclaimed by the King at Arms at Dublin and at Kilkenny where the Supream Council and the Assemblies of all the Confederate Catholicks were held and then Printed by their Authority The Arch-Bishop of Firmo manifesting his approbation of all that had been done giving his blessing to the Commissioners when they were sent to Dublin to conclude the Treaty and other Ministers from Foraign Princes being present consenting to and witnessing the Conclusion By the Lord Lieutenant and Council Ormond WHereas Articles of Peace are made concluded accorded and agréed upon by and between Us James Lord Marquiss of Ormond Lord Lieutenant General and General Governor of his Majesties Kingdom of Ireland his Majesties Commissioner to Treat and Conclude a Peace with his Majesties Roman Catholick Subjects of the said Kingdom by vertue of his Majesties Commission under the Great Seal of England bearing Date at Buckingham on the 24th day of June in the Twentieth year of his Reign for and on the behalf of his Most Excellent Majesty of the one part and Donogh Lord Viscount Muskery and others appointed and Authorized by his Majesties said Roman Catholick Subjects by vertue of an Authority of the said Roman Catholick Subjects bearing Date the sixth day of March 1645. and in the 21. year of his Majesties Reign of the other part a true Copy of which Articles of Peace is hereunto annexed We the Lord Lieutenant and Council 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 deprecations rapines and spoils which always accompany a War encourage the Subjects and others with comfort to betake themselves to Trade Traffick Commerce Manufacture and all other things which un-interrupted 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 his Majesties Castle of Dublin the Thirtieth day of July 1646. Ri. Bolton Canc. Roscomon Dillon Cha. Lambart Gerrard Lowther Fr. Willoughby Robert Forth La. Dublin Geo. Cloyne Arthur Chichester Hen. Tichborn Tho. Lucas
to believe the People were glad to be again receiv'd into his Majesty's Protection A Protection his Majesty evidences to his Commissioners at Uxbridge That it was as inevitably necessary that they should not consent to hinder him therein as he had strong Reasons for the Cessation before unless they could shew how his Protestant Subjects in Ireland may probably at least defend themselves and that he should have no more need to defend his Conscience and Crown from the Injuries of this Rebellion At this Peace the Irish seem'd exceedingly enliven'd but the shew thereof quickly vanish'd and a cloud of Jealousie began again to cover the Land The Pope's Nuncio and the titular Bishops who depended on him envi'd that Nation the happiness and glory they foresaw it would be possess'd of by the execution of that Agreement and so without any colour of Authority either by the old establish'd Laws of that Kingdom or those Rules they had prescrib'd to themselves since the Rebellion they conven'd a Congregation of the Clergy at Waterford a Town most at their devotion where the Titular Bishop of Ferns was in the Chair and refided And therefore it will not be amiss to take a short view of their proceedings that the unhappy oppressed and miserable Ireland may clearly discern to whom it owes those Pressures and Grievances it is now overwhelm'd with and whether that Bishop be to be reckon'd in the number of those who suffer at present for his Zeal to Religion his Allegiance to the King and his Affection to his Countrey or whether his name be to be inserted in that Catalogue which must derive to Posterity the Authors and Fomentors of so odious and causless a Rebellion in which such a Sea of Blood hath been let out and the Betrayers of the Honour and Faith of that Countrey and Nation and who are no less guilty of extirpation of a Religion they so much glory of in that Kingdom than Ireton or Cromwel or that impious Power under which they have perpetrated all their Acts of Blood Cruelty and Desolation At that time the Parliament of England having accommodated the Spaniard with 2000 Men he in lieu thereof so temper'd the Irish ever devoted to that Nation that the Spaniard having then an Agent in Ireland he took them off from doing any thing effectual in our King's business And the Congregation of the Clergy was no sooner assembled then instead of prescribing Acts of Charity and Repentance to the People for the ill they had formerly done and then inflaming their hearts with new Zeal and infusing pious Courage into them to relieve and succour the King from those who oppressed him according to their particular Obligation by their late Agreement which had been the proper Office of Prelates and a Christian Clergy they began to inveigh against the Peace which themselves had so lately approv'd and so formally consented unto as if it had not carefully enough provided for the advancement of Religion and would not suffer it to be proclaim'd in Waterford and sent their Emissaries and their Orders to all considerable Towns and Cities to incense the People against it and against those who wished it should take effect insomuch that when the King at Arms was Proclaiming the Peace at Limerick with that solemnity and Ceremony as in such cases is used throughout the World with his Coat of Arms the Ensign of his Office and accompani'd with the Mayor and Aldermen and the most substantial of the Citizens in their Robes and with all the Ensigns of Magistracy and Authority one Molife a seditious Frier stirr'd up the multitude against him which being led on by one Fanning a person notorious for many outrages and acts of Blood and Inhumanity in the beginning of the Rebellion violently assaulted them and after many opprobrious speeches in contempt of the Peace and the Authority of the King and tearing off the Coat from the Herald beat and wounded him and many of the Magistrates of the City and some of them almost to death And least all this might be excused and charitably interpreted to be the effect of a Popular and Tumultuous Insurrection the Lawful Mayor and other principal Officers who assisted him in the discharge of his Duty were immediately displac'd and Fanning the impious Conductor of that Rabble was made Mayor in his place who by Letters from the Nuncio was thanked for what he had done and encouraged to proceed in the same way and had the Apostolical Benediction bestowed on him for committing such an outrage upon the Priviledged Person of an Herald who in the name of the King came to proclaim Peace As by the Law of Nations must have been adjudged barbarous and unpardonable in any part of the World where Civility is planted if he had come to have denounced War And yet all this while the design it self was carried with so great secresie that the Lord Lieutenant proceeding in his Progress for the setling and composing the humours of the People which he understood to have been in some disorder by the infusions of the ill-affected Clergy never heard of any Force of Arms to second and support those mutinous disorders till being near to the City of Cashell he was advertis'd by Letters from the Mayor that Neal's Army was marching that way and had sent terrible threats to that City if it presum'd to receive the Lord Lieutenant And shortly after he found that Owen O Neal used all possible expedition to get between him and Dublin that so he might have been able to have surprised and destroyed him whereupon the Marquis found it necessary to lose no time in returning thither yet resolved not onely to contain himself from any Acts of Hostility but even from those Trespasses which are hardly avoidable upon Marches and paid so precisely for whatsoever was taken from the Inhabitants throughout all the Catholick Quarters presuming that those Persons of Honour who had transacted the Treaty would have been able to have caused the Peace to be observed in despight of those clamorous undertakers But when the Unchristian Congregation of Waterford had made this Essay of their Power and Jurisdiction they made all possible hast to propagate their Authority and declared the Peace to be void and inhibited all Persons to submit thereunto or to pay any Taxes Imposition or Contribution which had been setled by the said Agreement and without which neither a standing Army which was to be applied to the Reduction of those Towns and Provinces which had put themselves under the Protection of the Parliament of England and never submitted to the former Cessation nor could be comprehended in the Peace could be supported or the 10000 Men rais'd to be transported into England for the succour of the King as had been so Religiously undertaken which inclination of theirs the People so readily obeyed and submitted unto That they committed and delegated the intire and absolute Power of Governing
called ordinarily the Council-Table be of Members true and faithful to his Majesty and such of which there may be no fear or suspition of going to the Parliament Party 3. That Dublin Tredagh Trim Newry Catherlagh Carlingford and all Garrisons within the Protestant Quarters be Garrison'd by Confederate Catholicks to maintain and keep the said Cities and Places for the use of our Sovereign Lord King Charles and his Lawful Successors for the defence of this Kingdom of Ireland 4. That the present Council of the Confederates shall swear truly and faithfully to keep and maintain for the use of his Majesty and his lawful Successors and for the defence of the said Kingdom of Ireland the above Cities of Dublin and Tredagh and all other Forts Places and Castles as above 5. That the said Council and all General Officers and Soldiers whatsoever do swear and Protest to fight by Sea and Land against the Parliamentarians and all the Kings Enemies And that they will never come to any Convention Agreement or Article with the said Parliamentarians or any the Kings Enemies to the prejudice of his Majesties Rights or of this Kingdom of Ireland 6. That according to our Oath of Association we will to the best of our power and cunning defend the fundamental Laws of this Kingdom the Kings Rights the Lives and Fortunes of the Subjects His Excellency is prayed to make Answer to the above Propositions at furthest by two of the Clock in the afternoon on Thursday next J. Preston Owen O Neile Let all dis-passionate men now consider what could the Marquis do his Quarters were so strait and narrow that they could yield no support to the few Forces he had left all his Garrisons besieg'd without an Enemy being destitute of all Provisions within all the Army he had for the Field and Garrisons amounted not to 5000 Foot and 1100 Horse without Cloathes Money or Fixed Arms and with so inconsiderable a Store of Ammunition that when the Nuncio was upon his march towards Dublin he had not in that most important City the Metropolis of the Kingdom more than 14 Barrels of Powder So that not onely the Inhabitants but the Soldiers themselves grew impatient of the distresses they were in and which inevitably they saw must fall upon them and they who had before presum'd in corners and whispers to tax the Marquis of not being zealous enough of the English Interest and too credulous of what was promised and undertaken by the Irish had now the boldness to murmur aloud at him as if he had combined with the Irish to put all into their hands They who from the beginning of the Troubles had been firm and unshaken in their Duty and Loyalty to the King and chearfully suffered great losses and undergone great hazards for being so and been of the most constant affection to and confidence in the Marquis and resolved to obey him in whatsoever he should order for the King's Service for the conducting whereof he was solely and entirely trusted by his Majesty could not yet endure to think of being put into or falling under the power of the Irish who by this new breach of Faith had made themselves utterly uncapable of any future Trust for what security could they publickly give for performance of the Contract which they had not lately given for the observation of that which so infamously they had receded from Whereupon he found it absolutely necessary to make a shew of inclining to the English and sent to the Ships then riding in the Bay of Dublin that they would transport some Commissioners from him to the Parliament to treat about the surrender of the City and the other Garrisons under his Command Which Proposition was embrac'd by them and the Persons deputed accordingly conveyed into England By this means the Marquis was forthwith supplied with 20 Barrels of Powder which the Captain of those Ships delivered to him the 10th of March by the permission of the Lord Lisle the Parliaments Lord Lieutenant without which he could have made no defence against the Nuncio whereby the Irish had a fair warning to bethink themselves in time of returning to their Duty since they might discern that if they would not suffer Dublin c. to continue in the Kings obedience it should be delivered to them who would deal less graciously with them and had power enough to punish those indignities which had been offered And the Marquis was still without other Engagement than to do what he should judge most conducing to his Majesties Service However the Rebels persisted in their intentions against Dublin where for a while we must leave them and see what course the Parliament took to infest their Quarters much they were concern'd that affairs went not on so successfully there as they expected where that they might have one Governour answerable to the exigencies of that Kingdom they Voted Philip Viscount Lisle Lord Lieutenant passing thereupon in April 1646. a Patent to him for one year allotting him 40000 l. with what else was requisite for his dispatch in raising which they were so slow many of the House being of an opposite Party as he could not get away from London till the 1st of Febr. 1646. arriving at Bristol the 6th where he found several of his own Troops and his Brother Colonel Sidney's in readiness to be transported for Ireland But Money being not come he was forc'd to Quarter them thereabouts till its arrival and himself with 30000 l. 7 Pieces of Battery 1000 Muskets 100 Barrels of Powder embarqu'd the 18th at Minhead and landed near Cork the 20th and came thither the day following where he was altogether unexpected especially by the Lord Inchequin he found things in great disorder the Army filled with Officers disaffected to him the Custodiums and Contributions no way manag'd to the publick advantage thereupon reform'd the defects and marching the 15th of March to visit Talloe Lismore Toughall Fermoy and other Places found the Countrey protected even to the Walls of the Protestant Garrisons so as no mischief could be done by them to the Rebels and about the 20th of March Knockmohun was delivered to him He order'd all things for the best advantage of the Interest he was put upon and finding his Commission was near expir'd the General Officers petition'd that in case his Lordship were not continued the Command of the Army might rest in them which the Lord President with others oppos'd The Lord Lieutenant's Commission determind ' the 15th of April 1647. And shortly after such animosities arose betwixt the Parliaments Commissioners and the Lord Inchequin as doubtless if some Privy Counsellors had not interpos'd great inconveniencies would certainly thence have risen The Lord Lisle accompani'd with the Lord Broghil and Colonel Sidney went presently for England and arriv'd at London about the beginning of May following taking the first occasion to give the House an account of his Journey which may
Quality arrived at Dublin having been privately dispatch'd by his Majesty with signification of his Majesties Pleasure upon the advertisement he had receiv'd of the Condition of Ireland to this purpose That if it were possible for the Marquess to keep Dublin and the other Garrisons under the same intire Obedience to his Majesty they were then in it would be acceptable to his Majesty But if there were or should be a necessity of giving them up to any other Power he would rather put them into the hands of the English then of the Irish which was the Rule the Marquess was to guide himself by who had likewise his other very important considerations which if all the rest had been away had been enough to have inclin'd him to that resolution The King was now in the Power and hands of those who rais'd a War against him principally upon the credit of those reproaches and scandals that had perswaded the People to a belief of his inclinations to Popery and of his contriving or at least countenancing the Rebellion in Ireland in which so much Protestant Blood had been so wantonly and cruelly let out The Cessation formerly made and continued with those Rebels though prudently charitably and necessarily entred into had been the most un-popular Act the King had ever done and had wonderfully contributed to the Reputation of the two Houses of Parliament if according to the general opinion then currant there should a Peace ensue between the King and them so that his Majesty would lose nothing by the Parliament being possessed of Dublin and those other Towns then in the disposal of the Lord Lieutenant On the contrary if they intended to pursue his Majesty with continued and new reproaches and thereby to make him so odious to his Subjects that they might with more facility and applause execute their horrible Conspiracy against his Life there could be nothing so disadvantagious to his Majesty as the surrender of Dublin to the Irish Confederates which being done by the Kings Lord Lieutenant would easily be interpreted to be by his Majesties direction and so make a confirmation of all they had published of that kind and amongst the ignorant seduced People might have been a countenance to though nothing could be a justification of their unparalell'd Dealings Hereupon the Marquess took a Resolution since he could not possibly keep it himself to deliver it into the hands of the English and to that purpose sent again to the two Houses of Parliament at Westminster that he would surrender Dublin and the other Garrisons to them upon the same condition they had before offered who quickly dispatcht their Ships with Commissioners Men and Money and all other Provisions necessary to take the same into their possession The Confederate Catholicks were no sooner inform'd of this but they sent again to the Lord Lieutenant an overture of Accommodation as they call it yet the Messengers intrusted by them were so wary lest indeed by accepting what they proposed they might be obliged to a Conjunction that they refused to give their Propositions in Writing And when upon their Discourse the Lord Lieutenant had writ what they had propounded and shewed it to them albeit they could not deny but that it was the same yet they refused to Sign it whereby it was very natural to conclude that the Overture was made by them onely to lay some imputation upon the Marquess of not being necessitated to agree with the two Houses of Parliament rather then with any purpose of submitting to the Kings Authority At last being so far pressed they found it necessary to let the Marquess know in plain terms what he was to trust to they sent him a Message in Writing in which they declared That they must insist upon the Propositions of the Clergy formerly mention'd to be agreed at Waterford and to which they had sworn and that if he would have a Cessation with them he must promise not to receive any Forces from the two Houses of Parliament in 6 or 7 months Not proposing in the mean time any way how his Majesties Army should be maintain'd but by a full submission unto all their unreasonable Demands Notwithstanding all which the Parliament failing to make that speedy performance of what they had promised and their Commissioners not having as it was agreed on brought Bills sufficiently drawn to be accepted of for 10000 l. and the Marquess having it thereby in his Power fairly to comply with the Irish if they had yet recovered the temper and discretion that might justifie him He sent again to them as well an Answer to their Overtures of accommodation as an offer not to receive any Forces from the two Houses for the space of three weeks if they would during that time consent to a Ceassation that a full Peace might be treated and agreed upon To which Motion they never vouchsafed to return any Answer about the same time Owen O Neil wisely foreseeing that the Nuncio or the Supream Council did not enough consider or foresee the evil consequences that would undoubtedly attend the Lord Lieutenant's being compelled to leave the Kingdom and to put Dublin and the other Garrisons into the possession of the English Rebels sent his Nephew Daniel O Neil to the Marquess of Ormond that if the Marquess would accept of a Cessation for two months which he believ'd the Assembly or Supream Council would propose with what mind soever he would promise and undertake to continue it for a Twelvemonth and in the mean time he would use his utmost power to procure a Peace Owen O Neil was a man of an haughty and positive humour and rather hard to be inclined to submit to reasonable Conditions then easie to decline them or break his word when he had consented therefore the Lord Lieutenant return'd this Answer that if he would give him his word to continue the Cessation for a full year he would accept it when proposed from the Supream Council for two months and he would in the mean time wave any further Treaty with the Parliament yet sent him word he would not hold himself by this promise longer then fourteen days engaged if he did not in that time receive such a positive effect of his Overture as he expected Owen O Neil accepted of the Condition and with all possible speed dispatched his Nephew Daniel to the Supream Council at Clonmel with a Letter containing his Advice and another to the Bishop of Clogher his chief Confident to whom he sent Reasons at large which ought to induce the Nation to desire such a Cessation When the Council receiv'd the Letter and knew that the Lord Lieutenant expected an Answer within 14 days they resolved to return no Answer till those days were expired and during that time committed Daniel O Neil to Prison that he might not return to his Unkle and when the time was passed they releas'd him on condition that he should come no more into
1647. they unanimously publish'd a Declaration to that end exactly drawn up with great Reason Perspicuity and Eloquence The time that the Marquis of Ormond agreed with the Parliaments Commissioners was near the time that the Army had gotten the King into their hands having taken him from Holmbey out of the custody of the Commissioners to whom the Scots had delivered him And the Marquis of Ormond at his arrival in England found so many specious pretences and professions publish'd by that Party which then had the whole Power of the Army and consequently of the Kingdom that very many believ'd his Majesties Affairs to be in no ill condition more seeming respect was paid to his Person and less restraint upon the resort of his faithful Servants to him than had been from the time that he first put himself into the Scots power The Army took upon them the Government of the Kingdom having solemnly declared That there could be no reasonable hope of a firm and lasting Peace if there were not an equal care to preserve the Interest of the King Queen and Prince as of the Liberties of the People and that both should be with equal care provided for together In this time of freedom and hypocritical compliance the Marquis had free liberty of repairing to the King where he gave him an account of all his actions and of the course he had taken for the reviving and preserving his Majesties Interest in Ireland by setling a Correspondence with many Persons of Honour there who would keep the two Houses of Parliament how great an advantage soever he had given them by the delivery up of Dublin c. into their power if they refus'd to return to his Majesties obedience from obtaining any absolute Dominion in that Countrey and who were most like to reduce the Nation from the Distemper with which they were transported and to incline them to that submission that was due from them to the King with all which his Majesty was very graciously and abundantly satisfied and gave the Marquis direction in case the Independent Army should proceed otherwise than they pretended how he should behave himself and comply with the Irish if he could reduce and dispose them to be instrumental towards his or their own delivery And when his Majesty discovered by the double dealing and hypocritical demeanour of the Officers of the Army of whom he had earlier jealousie than other men as seeing farther into their dark Design the little good they meant him he found it fit to receive some Overtures from the Scottish Commissioners who were still admitted to reside at London and to bear a part in the Managery of the Publick Affairs and now plainly saw that the Independent Army which they had so much despised was grown superiour to them and meant to perform nothing less than what they had so Religiously promised before the King was delivered up at Newcastle The King hereupon commands the Marquis of Ormond to confer with the principal Persons of that Commission who seem'd very sensible of the dishonour their Nation had incurr'd and resolved by uniting the power of that Kingdom for his Majesties Service to undo some of the mischief they had wrought And desired that the Marquis of Ormond would likewise transport himself into Ireland to try once more if he could compose the humours of that People to his Majesties obedience that so those two Kingdoms being entirely reduc'd to their duty might with that assistance they were like to find in England perswade the violent Party to comply with those moderate and just Conclusions which would establish the Peace and Tranquility of the whole in a full happiness to Prince and People And from hence was that first Engagement design'd which was afterwards so unfortunately conducted by the elder Duke Hamilton and concluded with the ruine of himself and of many Worthy and Noble Persons When the Army had by their civil and specious carriage and professions disposed the Kings Party to wish well to them at least better than to the Presbyterians who seem'd to have erected a Model of a more formid and insupportable Tyranny and were less endu'd with the appearances of Humanity and good Nature and had by shuffling themselves into new shapes of Government and admitting Persons of all Conditions to assemble and make Propositions to them in order to the publick Peace given encouragement to most men to believe that all Interests would in some degree be provided for and so had brought themselves into an absolute Power over all Interests they began to lessen their outward Respects and Reverence to the King to inhibit some of his Servants absolutely to resort to him and more to restain the frequent access of the People who out of their innate Duty and Affection delighted to see his Majesty they caused reports to be raised and scattered abroad of some intentions in desperate persons of violence upon his Majesties Person and upon this pretence doubled their Guards and put Officers of stricter vigilance and more surly disposition about him so that whatsoever he said or did or was said unto him was more punctually observed The Marquis of Ormond was look'd upon with a very jealous eye and was forbid to continue his attendance on him or to come within 25 miles of London and that Article in the Agreement at the delivery of Dublin viz. That he should engage his Honour not to act any thing to the prejudice of the Parliament in a twelvemonth there was an intention to put him in mind of by a Letter from the Committee at Derby-house but before the Messenger came where he had been near Bristol he knowing of the King 's being close Prisoner in Carisbrook-Castle and that it would be to little purpose to contest his Articles with the Parliament privately shipt himself away for France where he arrived safely about the end of the year 1647. having spent in England little more than six months For a time we must leave the Marquis in France and return to Colonel Jones in Dublin who with those Forces that were left there by the Marquis of Ormond and such as he brought and received out of England amounting in all to 3000 marched against Colonel Preston approaching with his Leimster Forces to infest Dublin and met him about 12 miles from Dublin who having gotten great advantage of ground routed Jones killed many of his men and took not a few Prisoners Jones himself escaping with much difficulty to Dublin Whether upon this accident or otherwise I cannot determine but great divisions then arose betwixt the old English who had Preston for their General and the old Irish who had Owen Roe O Neal for theirs The old English had a gallant Army consisting of near 10000 Foot and Horse well Arm'd and well Disciplin'd who thought that if they would offer themselves Instruments to destroy the old Irish they might at any time have good Conditions from England therefore under
this Proceeding Monsieur Rinuccini hath given the World an occasion to believe that he had private and secret Commission to change the Government of Ireland and to separate that Island from the Crown of England And this Opinion is the more confirmed since that one Mahony a Jesuit hath printed a Book in Portugal wherein he endeavours to prove that all the Kings of England have been either Tyrants or Usurpers of Ireland and so fallen from the dominion of it exhorting all its Natives to get thither and to use all Cruelty against the English with expressions full of Villany and Reproach and to chuse a new King of their own Countrey And this Book so barbarous and bloody dispersed through Ireland is yet credited by the Catholick and Apostolick Chair And the Continuation of the History of Cardinal Baronius was published at the same time under the Name of Olderico Raynaldo in which he endeavours to establish the supream Right and Dominion in the Apostolick Chair even in Temporalibus over England and Ireland I leave to every Man to consider whether all these Actions are not apt enough to beget Jealousies and naughty Blood and whether I ought not out of great respect to the publick Good to represent with some ardency to your Holiness the Actions of Monsieur Rinuccini so unpleasant and directly contrary to those Ends for which it was supposed he was imployed And I beseech your Holiness if any King not only Protestant but Catholick had seen an Apostolick Nuncio to lord it in his Dominions in such a manner as Monsieur Rinuccini hath done in Ireland what Jealousies what Complaints and how many Inconveniencies would thereby follow Thus as to the Nuncio from the Confederates themselves Though he gives this account of himself For the better understanding of this saith he Recourse must be had to the first rising of the Irish which was upon this occasion The Parliament of England having enter'd into an Agreement with the Kingdom of Scotland called the large Treaty in which there was a clause to joyn against the common Enemy wherein the Catholicks of Ireland as well as others if not chiefly did apprehend themselves comprehended to ballance which or to prevent the misery that might fall upon them thereby being sensible of the Earl of Stafford's death which purported some to be sent as Governour that was not like to carry so fair to them as he had done the same being to be approv'd at least by the Parliament then sitting For better security they endeavoured the supplanting all Protestants within that Kingdom and though at that time without Arms or Ammunition got possession of most part of the Kingdom whereupon was established a Council of 24 part of Civil and part Ecclesiastical Persons of which 12 were to reside in Kilkenny or other place as occasion and need called with this Resolution agreed to hold a Parliament every year by or in which the said Council should be chang'd or continu'd By this it was resolv'd and after sworn by all the Catholicks never to lay down Arms until the Roman Church was settled as of old in Ireland and the King secur'd in all his Priviledges that of calling and putting period to Parliaments at pleasure with a Negative voice being chiefly meant and then in great hazard to be lost The Earl of Ormond and Inchequin Protestants fearing the issue of this League and fore-seeing the in-ability to oppose it treated with the Earl of Clanrickard Lord Muskery and other Lords Catholicks that possessed many Church-Benefices a way erected by Queen Elizabeth thereby to extinguish the Catholicks and advertised them that the Restitution of the Catholick Discipline would out them of all the said Profits gain'd them to the other side though they continued still of the Council in which they were a prevalent party taking to them such when any went out as were of Ormond's mind and design by which means a Peace was suddainly concluded upon supposition that the Affairs of the Catholicks requir'd it although there was no mention of the Interest of that Church in the Accord About that time the King sent to this Council the Earl of Glamorgan with full power to accord to the Catholicks as they desired if they should send him 10000 Men as they had offered Ormond then at Dublin under pretext of Treating drew Glamorgan thither took from him his Commission and made him Prisoner and certified the King that himself could make a far better and more advantagious Peace with the Catholicks which he did in 30 Articles This breach of Oath made by the Council gave occasion to the Nuncio John Baptist Rinuccini Archbishop and Prince of Firmo who had brought some succours of Money and Arms into Ireland to assemble the Clergy in Waterford and Excommunicate all such as should adhere to the Peace Which notwithstanding the said Marquiss advanc'd to Kilkenny to execute the same but O Neil returning victorious from the defeat of 20000 Scots in two Battles at Benburgh and Tirconnel Ormond goes back without doing of any thing whereupon were imprison'd the 7 that signed the Peace Ormond seeing himself out with the Catholicks both because he had ill treated them and by the violence exercised by his Army no sooner return'd to Dublin but he treated with the Parliament of England for the delivery of the Towns he held which was done accordingly Coming after to London where he expected to be gratified by the Parliament of England proportionable to the service done them but finding there no such disposition he went secretly to the Queen at St. Germains to justifie himself and perswade her That his rendring Dublin and other Towns were serviceable to the King her Husband then Prisoner to the Parliament because said he it is better that they have them then the Catholicks whom he affirm'd to have fail'd in their Fidelity to their King although they renew'd the abovemention'd Oath yearly About this time another Assembly of Catholicks sent to the Queen and the Princes her Children to desire certain concessions in the absence and because of the Detention of the King her Husband deputing others to Rome with Instructions to the former Deputies to act jointly with these but contrary those to the Queen not waiting the Resolution or Concurrence of them at Rome Muskery and Brown two of those Deputies notwithstanding the opposition of the Marquiss of Antrim who was chief proposed and obtain'd of the Queen that she send into Ireland the Marquess of Ormond as formerly to be Lord Deputy or Vice-Roy Who being brought into that Kingdom by the support of the said Supream Council of which 7 always favour'd him they again concluded a Cessation of Arms with Inchequin then reduced to such necessities that he was ready to fly into Holland whither then he had dispatch'd part of his Goods with good store of Money pick'd up there The Suspension not to be hindred by the Nuncio notwithstanding the offers of Money to satisfie the pressing necessities
the Marquis Whereupon his Majesty signifi'd That in case other things were compos'd by the Treaty the Concerns of Ireland should be left wholely to the management of the Houses And in the interim writes to the Marquis of Ormond this Letter C. R. RIght Trusty and Well-beloved Cousin and Counsellor We greet you well Whereas We have received several Informations from Our two Houses of Parliament concerning your proceedings with the Confederate Roman Catholicks in the Kingdom of Ireland the several Votes and Extracts whereof We do herewith transmit unto you and forasmuch as We are now engaged in a Treaty of Peace with Our two Houses wherein We have made such large Concessions as We hope will prove the foundation of a blessed Peace And We having consented by one Article if the said Treaty take effect to entrust the Prosecution and Management of the War in Ireland to the Guidance and Advice of Our two Houses We have therefore thought fit hereby to require you to desert from any further Proceedings upon the Matters contained in the said Papers And We expect such Obedience unto this Our Command that Our Houses desires may be fully satisfi'd Given at Newport in the Isle of Wight the 25th of November in the 24th Year of Our Reign To Our Right Trusty and Well-beloved Cousin and Counsellor James Marquis of Ormond As soon as the Parliament received this Letter some were of opinion that it should be immediately sent to the Marquis of Ormond yet others aiming at what afterwards was brought upon the Stage laid it as it 's said aside We find by the event it produced nothing for the Treaty proceeded a Peace ensuing though as yet Owen Roe was so far from being reconcil'd to the Supreme Council or any that adher'd thereunto as he fell most violently in the end of November upon the Earl of Clanrickard's Party gaining Jamestown by Composition and Drumrusk by the Sword Rory Mac-Guire the prime Instrument herein with several other Officers and Common Soldiers to the number of 4 or 500 being there slain Roe's Party afterwards putting all to the Sword save Major Bourk his Wife and Children cruelly harassing the whole County of Roscommon The 19th of October the Confederate Catholick's Commissioners came to Carrick an House of the Marquis's where he continued about twenty days which they spent principally in matters of Religion in treating whereof they were so bound and limited by their Instructions and could make so little progress of themselves being still to give an account to the Assembly of whatsoever was propos'd or offer'd by the Lord Lieutenant and to expect its Direction or Determination before they proceed that for the husbanding of time which was now very precious the prevailing Party in England every day more discovering their bloody purposes towards the King the Assembly thought it fit to desire the Marquis to repair to his own Castle at Kilkenny which they offered to deliver into his hands and that for his Honour and Security he should bring his own Guards who should have the reception due to them And upon this invitation about the middle of November he went to Kilkenny before the entry into which he was met by the whole Body of the Assembly and all the Nobility Clergy and Gentry and in the same Town was receiv'd with all those requisite Ceremonies by the Mayor and Aldermen as such a Corporation use to pay to the Supreme Authority of the Kingdom so that greater evidence could not be given of an entire union in the desire of the People of returning to the Kings obedience or of more affection and respect to the Person of the Lord Lieutenant who by his steady pursuing those professions he had always made by his neglect and contempt of the Parliamentarians and their prodigious Power whilst he was in England by his refusing all Overtures made by them unto him for his particular benefit if he would live in the Kingdom and by their declared manifest hatred and malice towards him was now superiour to all those Calumnies they had aspersed him with and confessed to be worthy of a joynt trust from the most different and divided Interests and Designs However there were so many Passions and Humours and Interests to be compli'd with and all Conclusions to pass the Approbations of so many Votes that it was the middle of January before all Opinions could be so reconciled as to produce a perfect and entire Contract and Agreement which about that time passed with that miraculous consent and unity that in the whole Assembly in which there were Catholick Bishops there was not one dissenting Voice So that on the 17th of January 1648. the whole Assembly repair'd to the Lord Lieutenant in his Castle at Kilkenny and there with all solemnity imaginable presented him by the hand of their Chair-man or Speaker the Articles of Peace as concluded assented and submitted unto by the whole Body of the Catholick Nation of Ireland which he receiv'd and solemnly confirm'd on his Majesties behalf and caus'd the same that day to be Proclaim'd in that Town to the great joy of all who were present and it was with all speed accordingly Proclaim'd and as joyfully receiv'd in all the Cities and Incorporate Towns which professed any Allegiance to the King throughout the Kingdom and for the better reception thereof amongst the People and to manifest the satisfaction and joy they took in it the Catholick Bishops sent out their Declarations and Letters that they were abundantly satisfi'd in whatsoever concern'd Religion and the secure practice thereof Certainly well they might for unless it had been at such a time that his Majesty had been reduc'd to the utmost extremity a Prince could be compell'd to such disingenious and hard terms could never have been stood upon with a free and generous Prince in as much as his present Majesty in his Declaration for the settlement of Ireland there takes notice That no body could wonder that he was desirous though upon difficult conditions to get such an united Power of his own Subjects as might have been able with Gods blessing to have prevented the infamous and horrid Parricide intended But how ineffectual this his Indulgence after prov'd will appear by these Wretches foolishly forfeiting all the Grace which they might have expected from him But to proceed When the Articles of Peace were presented in that solemn manner to him by the Assembly after a Speech made by the Chair-man The Lord Lieutenant express'd himself in these words My Lords and Gentlemen I Shall not speak to those expressions of Duty and Loyalty so eloquently digested into a Discourse by the Gentleman appointed by you to deliver your sence you will presently have in your hands greater and more solid Arguments of his Majesties Gracious acceptance than I can enumerate or perhaps you your selves discern For besides the provision made against the remotest fears fear of severity of certain Laws and besides
Churches and Church-Livings they have in present possession and the Exercise of Jurisdiction therein 2. That a Parliament be had within 6 months or when after the Roman Catholicks shall desire 3. That all Laws made in the Parliament of England since 1641. in blemish of the Catholicks are at the next Parliament to be vacated 4. All Indictments against any Catholicks since 1641. be vacated 5. All Impediments to be taken away that Catholicks be elected in Parliament 6. All Debts to remain as they were Feb. 8. 1641. notwithstanding any Attainder 7. The Estates of the Knights Gentlemen and Freeholders of Connaght Clare Thomond Limerick and Tipperary be secured by an Act. 8. All Incapacities of the Natives in Ireland be taken away by Act. 9. All Honours Trusts Imployments or such like be conferred as well upon Catholicks as Protestants 10. That the King take 12000 l. per annum in lieu of the Court of Wards 11. No Noblemen to have more Proxies than two in Parliament and all Blanks to be null 12. That the depending of the Parliament of Ireland upon England shall be as both shall agree and stand with the Laws of Ireland 13. That the Council-Table meddle only with Matters of State 14. That all Acts forbidding the Transport of Wooll be null'd by the next Parliament 15. That if any have been wrong'd by Grants from King James or since they may Petition and have Relief in Parliament 16. That divers particular Lords Knights and Gentlemen who have been as they conceiv'd wrong'd shall now be righted 17. That all who had their Estates taken from them in Cork Toughall and Dungarvan have restoration or Rent 18. That in the next Parliament an Act of Oblivion pass to all in Ireland and that adhered to them 19. That no Officer of Eminency in Ireland farm the Customs 20. An Act to pass against Monopolists 21. That the Court of Castle-Chamber be regulated 22. That the Acts for prohibiting plowing with Horses by the Tayls and burning Oats in the Straw be null 23. An Act for taking off the Grievances of the Kingdom 24. That Maritime Causes be determin'd in Ireland 25. That no Rents be rais'd upon the Subjects under pretence of defective Titles 26. That Interest-Money be forgiven from 1641. 27. That all this be acted and be of force till a Parliament agree the same 28. The Commissioners for the Catholicks that treated agree upon such as shall be Commissioners of the Peace and hear all Causes under 10 l. 29. That all Governours of Towns Castles and Places made by the King be with the Approbation of the Catholick Commissioners 30. That none of his Majesty's Rents be paid until a full Settlement in Parliament 31. That the Commissioners of Oyer and Terminer do try Murthers Stealing and all inferiour Trespasses of that nature 32. That hereafter such Differencies as shall arise between Subjects be determin'd by a Court in Ireland not transfer'd to England 33. That the Roman Clergy that behave themselves according to the Agreement be not molested Lastly That his Majesty please to grant what-ever else is necessary for the Roman Catholicks Upon which Peace the Marquess of Ormond the Lord Taaff and that Party engag'd to raise for Munster 4000 Foot and 800 Horse the supream Council and Preston for Leimster 4000 Foot and 800 Horse Inchiquin 3000 Foot and 600 Horse the Lord of Clanrickard for Connaght proportionable to the first In all 15000 Foot and 3000 Horse besides what Owen Roe upon his uniting afterwards might bring in computed to be 5000 Foot and 500 Horse that in the whole a gallanter Army had they been unanimous could scarce have been marshall'd With what Consent and Unity soever this Peace was made by those who had any pretence to Trust or to whom there was the least Deputation of Authority and Power by the Nation yet Owen O Neal with whom the Earl of Antrim joyn'd had the greatest Influence upon the Humours and Inclinations of the old Irish who had given themselves up to the Nuncio and who indeed had a better disciplin'd and consequently a stronger Army at his Command than the Confederates thought he could have gain'd to his Devotion still refused to submit to it So that the Lord Lieutenant as soon as the Peace was concluded was as well to provide against him to remove some Garrisons he held which infested those who obeyed the Acts of the Assembly and to prevent his Incursion as to raise an Army against the Spring to march against the English who were possessed of Dublin and all the Countrey and important Places of that Circuit and who he was sure would be supplied with all assistance of Shipping Men Money Victuals and Ammunition which the Parliament of England who had now murthered their Sovereign and incorporated themselves under the Name and Title of a Common-wealth could send them And he was in a worse condition to prevail against both these by the unhappy Temper and Constitution of the Scots in Ulster who being very numerous and possessed of the strong Towns though in profession they abhorred the Regicides and were not reconcilable to Owen O Neal and his Party were as yet as un-inclined to the Peace made with the Confederates and far from paying an obedience and full submission to the Orders and Government of the Lord Lieutenant maintaining at the same time the Presbyterian Form in their Church and an utter Independency in the State and out of those contradictory Ingredients compounding such a peevish and wayward Affection and Duty to the King as could not be applied to the bearing any part in the great Work the Marquess was incumbent to As soon as he heard of the Murther of the King he proclaim'd our present Sovereign Charles the 2d King of England Scotland France and Ireland at Carrick the 16th of Feb. 1648. And being by a Clause in his late Commission from his Majesty qualified with special Power and Authority to make no distinction in difference of Judgement betwixt any who should subject their Assistance to his Majesty's Service he soon won the Scots to a compliance though under the shackles of their Covenant who immediately us'd the most favourable Arguments they could to win Sir Charles Coot to their Party And to that end from the Congregation of the Presbytery at Belfast the 15th of Feb. 1648. they tempt him by several Representations with their Sence To which the 7th of March ensuing Sir Charles Coot and the Council of War held at London-derry return'd these Reasons for their Dis-agreement First We find no part of God's Word authorizing us being but a Branch of a subordinate Kingdom to declare against the Parliament of England under whom we serve who are the visible Authority of both Kingdoms and against an Army acting by their Power before we receive from themselves a Declaration and Grounds of those Proceedings wherewith they are aspers'd Secondly For the Covenant we have taken on which your Representations seem to
three months Pay should be given to those that go 5. That private Souldiers and non-Commission-Officers should receive 2 Months Pay of Arrears and Commission-Officers under a Captain one Months Pay 6. That Magazines for Provisions be settled at Bristol Chester Liverpool Beaumaris and Milford 7. That a sufficient Squadron of Ships be appointed for the Irish Coast. 8. That Ships should be Victuall'd at Dublin Liverpool and Beaumaris and a Court of Admiralty should be erected at Dublin to prevent their coming into England to dispose of Prizes and so neglect the Service 9. That the Pay of the Officers and Souldiers should be according to the Irish Establishment onely the Officers to receive for the present the same Pay as here 10. That an Hospital for sick and maim'd Souldiers should be erected at Dublin 11. That the Parliaments Forces already in Ireland and those then ready to go over should be in one Army and one Establishment 12. That 5000 Quarters of bread-Corn 200 Tun of Salt 200 Tun of Cheese should be transported with those who now go over 13. A Competent Train of Artillery with Arms Ammunition c. should be sent and a care to be taken to send over Recruits of Horse as there should be occasion Lastly That there be Recruits of Horse Foot Arms Saddles c. ready to supply the Service of Ireland to be sent over as need shall require Thus provided Cromwel prepares for his Journey though to accommodate him with an Army of 8000 Foot and 4000 Horse no small difference arose betwixt the Presbyterian and Independent at that time undermining each other the Levellers being pragmatick He however carried over some of the discontented Persons on each side finding them there work enough against a common Enemy And so prepared for his Journey 120000 l. being borrowed of the City upon the Credit of the Ordinance of 90000 l. a month In the interim he gets Sir Theophilus Jones who was sent to the Parliament from his Brother dispatch'd for Ireland with 1500 Quarters of Corn and 10000 l. in Money little enough to hearten the Souldiers frequently then deserting the Parliament and flying to the Marquess of Ormond yea the Regiment the Parliament sent under Colonel Tuthil being made up of Voluntiers most of those engaged in Colchester Design mutinied being sent over without Money Provisions or Cloaths thereby indangering the City more then the Marquess The Scots in the interim in a Remonstrance and Declaration to which on the least Motive they are naturally inclin'd of the general Assembly of the Church of Scotland concerning present and eminent danger the 13th of Febr. 1649. declared amongst other things as Grievances That the standing Armies in Ireland under the Marquess of Ormond the Lord Inchequin and the Lords of Ards and George Monro forgetting all the horrible cruelty that was exercised by the Irish Rebels upon many thousands of the English and Scottish Nations in that Land have enter'd into a Peace and Association with them that they may the more easily carry on the old Designs of the Popish Prelatical and Malignant Party and the Lords of Ards and George Monro have by treachery and oppression brought the Province of Ulster and Garrisons therein under their Power and Commands which urging with much violence afterwards produced a Declaration from the King in dislike of the Peace 1648. much insisted on by the Irish and indeed as you will hear begat the grounds of a future distast So that whosoever will wisely revolve and consider this wilde Conjuncture of Affairs and that to the subduing the Power Strength and Wealth of the Parliament and the equal malice and headiness of Owen O Neal and his Party as much or in truth more contracted against the Confederate Irish then the Kings Authority and the forming and disposing the useless and unprofitable pretences of affection in the Scots and reducing them to obedience the Marquess brought over with him neither Men nor Money considerable nor any advantage but that of his own Person Wisdom and Reputation and was now upon the Peace to constitute an Army not only of several Nations and Religions and of such Passion and Superciliousness in these Opinions which flowed from their several Religions but of such men who had for about the space of eight years prosecuted a sharp War against each other with all the Circumstances of Animosities Rapine and Revenge and who were now brought into this Reconciliation and Conjunction rather by the wonderful Wisdom and Dexterity of the Principal Commanders then by their own Charity and Inclination And that in the forming of this Army he had not above 6 or 7 Officers upon whose skill in Martial Affairs and affection to him he could with any confidence depend but was to make use of very many who were utterly unknown to him and such who either had no experience in the War or who had been alway in the War against him I say whosoever without passion considers all this will rather wonder that the Marquess did not sink under the weight of the first Attempt nay that he could proceed with success in any one Enterprize then that an Army so made up should upon the first mis-adventure be dissolv'd into jealousies and prejudices amongst themselves and that all confusions should follow which naturally attend such Compositions As soon as the Peace was thus concluded proclaim'd and accepted the Lord Lieutenant took a survey of the Stores of Arms Ammunition and other Provisions necessary for the Army which was to be brought together in the Spring and found all very short of what he expected and what was absolutely necessary to the Work and ways for raising of Money with which all the rest was to be supplied in no degree to be depended upon The Cities and Incorporate Towns where upon the matter all the Wealth was having never submitted further to the General Assembly then by declaring themselves to be of their Party but like so many Common-Wealths order'd all Contributions and payments of Money by their own Acts and Determinations nor would upon the most Emergent occasions suffer any Money to be rais'd in any other proportion or in any other manner then best agreed with their Humours and Conveniencies So that the Commissioners advised and besought the Lord Lieutenant to make a Journey in Person to such of those Corporations as were best able to assist him and by his own Presence Assistance and Interest endeavour to perswade them to express that affection to the Peace they had professed And thereupon he went with a Competent number of the Commissioners to Waterford which gave 8000 l. and 3000 Barrels of Corn and from thence he went to Limerick and then to Gallway and Kilkenny from which several Places he procured the Loan of more Money Corn and Ammunition then the General Assembly had ever been able to do for most of which last he was forced to bargain with Patrick Archer and other Merchants for a Supply
Lieutenant-General of the Army with a strong Party of Horse to pursue Jones his Horse which were sent for Tredagh which he did so successfully that he surprized one whole Troop and afterwards encountred Colonel Chidley Coot in the head of 300 Horse whereof he slew many and routed the rest who in great disorder fled to Tredagh The Lord Inchequin presently sent advertisement of this success and that he had reason to believe that if he pursued this advantage and attempt the Town while this terror possessed that Party he should make himself Master of it whereupon in respect of the great importance of the Place the reduction whereof would produce a secure correspondence with and give encouragement to the Scots in Ulster who made great professions in which they were ever free of Duty to the King and had now under the conduct of the Lord Viscount Montgomery of Ards driven Sir Charles Coot into the City of London-derry and upon the matter beleagu'd him there the Lord Lieutenant by the advice of the Council of War approved the Lord Inchequin's Design and to that purpose sent him two Regiments of Foot and two Pieces of Artillery and such Ammunition and Materials as could be spared wherewith he proceeded so vigorously that within 7 days he compelled the besieged to yield to honourable Conditions so reduced Tredagh to the Kings Obedience after he had been twice beaten off the Town having not above 600 Men who had spent all their Ammunition left to defend so large a circuit some of which afterwards revolted to the Marquess and Colonel Coot with 150 Horse and near 400 Foot march'd to Dublin There was now very reasonable ground for hope that the Parliaments Party would quickly find themselves in notable streights and distresses when it was on a suddain discover'd how very active and dexterous the spirit of Rebellion is to reconcile and unite those who were possessed by it and how contrary soever their Principles and Ends seem to be and contribute jointly to the opposing and oppressing that Lawful Power they had both equally injured and provoked The Parliament Party who had heap'd so many Reproaches and Calumnies upon the King for his Clemency to the Irish who had founded their own Authority and Strength upon such foundations as were inconsistent with any toleration of the Roman Catholick Religion and some write so bitter are their Pens even with Humanity to the Irish Nation and more especially to those of the old Native Extraction the whole Race whereof they had upon the matter sworn to an utter extirpation And Owen O Neal himself was of the most antient Sept and whose Army consisted onely of such who avowed no other cause for their first entrance into Rebellion but Matter of Religion and that the Power of the Parliament was like to be so great and prevalent that the King himself would not be able to extend his Favours and Mercy towards them which they seem'd to be confident he was in his gracious disposition inclined to express and therefore professed to take up Arms against the exorbitant Power onely of them and to retain hearts full of Devotion and Duty to his Majesty and who at present by the under-hand and secret Treaties with the Lord Lieutenant seem'd more irreconcilable to the Proceedings of the General Assembly and to the Persons of those whom he thought govern'd there then to make any scruple of submitting to the Kings Authority in the Person of the Marquess to which and to whom he protested all Duty and Reverence These two so contrary and dis-agreeing Elements had I say by the subtile and volatile spirit of Hypocrisy and Rebellion the Arts of the time found a way to incorporate together and Owen O Neal had promised and contracted with the other that he would compel the Lord Lieutenant to retire and draw off his Army from about Dublin by his invading those Parts of Leimster and Munster with his Army which yielded most yea all the Provisions and subsistance to the Marquess and which he presumed the Marquess would not suffer to be spoil'd and desolated by his Incursions for the better doing whereof and enabling him for this Expedition Colonel Monk Governor of Dundalk who was the second Person in Command amongst the Parliaments Forces had promised to deliver to him out of the stores of that Garrison a good quantity of Powder Bullet and Match proportionable for the fetching whereof Owen O Neal had sent Farral Lieutenant General of his Army with a Party of 500 Foot and 300 Horse At that time Tredagh was taken by the Lord Inchequin who being there advertised of that new contracted friendship resolved to give some interruption to it and made so good hast that within few hours after Farral had receiv'd the Ammunition at Dundalk he fell upon him routed all his Horse and of the 500 Foot there were not 40 escaped but were either slain or taken Prisoners and got all the Ammunition and with it so good an Account of the present state of Dundalk that he immediately engaged before it and assisted by the Lord of Ards who a little before had been chosen by the Presbyterian Ministers their Commander in Chief thereby possessing himself of Carrigfergus and Belfast in two days compelled Monk who would else have been delivered up by his own Souldiers to surrender the Place where was a good Magazeen of Ammunition Cloath and other Necessaries for War most of the Officers and Souldiers with all alacrity engaging themselves in his Majesties service though the Governor Shipt himself for England and landing shortly after at Chester he went immediately to Bristol where Cromwel the Parliaments Lord Lieutenant was then to come for Ireland who receiv'd him very courteously but after he had remain'd some days there advised him to go up to the Parliament to give them satisfaction in the Cessation he had made with Owen Roe O-Neal the 8th of May 1649. which he did And the business of that Cessation being brought into the House it was much resented and after some debate more then ordinarily had on other occasions several severe Votes passed against it onely Colonel Monk being conceived to have made it out of a good intent for preserving the Interest of the Parliament was held to be clear and not thought fit hereafter to be question'd But this was taken as a fair way of laying him aside whereupon Colonel Monk retir'd to his own Estate unhappy onely in being the Instrument of their preservation who were not sensible of his Merits And now that all Parties might be kept entire the Marquess of Ormond publishes a Declaration upon Instructions from the King design'd purposely for Ulster AFter my hearty Commendations upon some Representations that have been lately made unto us we have thought fit to send you down the ensuing Instructions First That so far as your Power extends you cause every Person without distinction who have submitted to his Majesties Authority
Bishop of Clougher held a Council at Baltimore in West-Meath to consult the security of the Nation which Cromwel hearing of sent Colonel Reynolds and Sir Theophilus Jones with 2500 Horse Foot and Dragoons against them with which they dispersed them and those Forces which the Marquis of Clanrickard and the Earl of Castlehaven had brought out of Connaght to the Relief of Tecrogham within 20 miles of Dublin and being joyn'd with the Dublin Forces took in Trim Balahuse Finagh and other Places In the time that Clonmel was Besieged the Bishop of Ross with 4000 Foot and 300 Horse endeavours its Relief but is overcome by the Lord Broghil near Bandon-Bridge and himself taken Prisoner and hang'd in the sight of Caringdred which Castle thereupon yielded to the Lord Broghil In this Hurry the Forces in Ulster being besides much shaken by reason of several Interresses the Nobility Gentry and Commanders for the King scattered a Declaration that none who would submit to his Authority should suffer either in Religion or State but it prevailed little During the Leaguer of Clonmel absolute Orders were brought to Cromwel from the Parliament for his sudden return as also two Expresses from the Council of State to that purpose which after the compleatment of that Siege he fulfilled leaving the Kingdom about the end of May 1650. having made Colonel Ireton his Deputy Here we cannot but take notice that there were several Precepts by the Archbishop of Ardmagh and others to pray for the success of Oliver's Forces whilst Dominick Dempsy a Franciscan esteem'd a grave and holy man and therefore a leading Person and Long the Jesuit asserted that the King being out of the Roman Catholick Church it was not lawful to pray for him particularly or publickly in general on any other day than on Good-Friday as comprehended amongst the Infidels alias Jews Mahometans Pagans and Hereticks and then for the Spiritual welfare of his Soul not for his Temporal prosperity Though the Parliamentarians by the Faction and obstinacy of the Irish who could not hitherto be induced to make reasonable provision for defence had prevail'd far and possessed themselves of many good Places without considerable opposition yet there remain'd a good part of the Kingdom free from their Power the whole Province of Connaght was still entire and the Cities of Waterford Limerick and Galway in possession of the Catholicks which might be made so strong as not to fear any strength Ireton could bring before them and are so situated for all advantages of Sea that they might being well supplied maintain a War against the whole Kingdom they had also the Forts of Duncannon and Sligo as also the strong Castles of Caterlough Athlone Charlemont Carlo and Neanagh from whence the Confederates might bring into the Field twice the number of Men which the Enemy had so that there wanted onely Unity Order and Resolution to preserve themselves to improve which the Marquis of Ormond resolved to begin with Limerick and if he could have disposed that City unto a full obedience and to receive a Garrison he made no question not onely to fortifie it against any attempt of the Enemy but under the countenance of it and by the security of the River Shannon to Quarter his Troops raise Contribution for their support Discipline his Men and in effect by the Spring so to recruit his Army that he might not suspect to prevail against the Enemy where-ever he should engage And to this purpose he went himself thither from Kilkenny in January hoping that the good resolution of the Bishops of Cloanmacnoise had well prepared the People to comply with him but when he came thither albeit he was receiv'd with outward demonstrations of respect he found the temper not such as he desired whatsoever the Bishops had declared The Clergy had observed none of those Directions nor were any in so much credit as they who behaved themselves quite contrary to those Determinations And if no way could be found to allay this Spirit all his endeavours he saw would be without any fruit Hereupon he resolv'd to try whether that part of the Clergy which wished well to the Kingdom could use as efficacious means to preserve as the other who desired confusion did to destroy it And upon advice with the principal Persons of the Catholick Nobility and with the Commissioners of Trust he did by his Letters of the 27th of February 1649. desire as many of the Catholick Bishops as were within convenient distance to meet him at Limerick which they accordingly did the 8th of March following When they came thither he conferred with them in the presence of â—he Commissioners of Trust with all frankness upon the distracted and disjoynted state of Affairs and freely told them That without the People would be brought to have a full confidence in him and yield perfect obedience to him and without the City of Limerick might be perswaded to receive a Garrison and obey his Orders it was not to be hoped that he could be able to do any thing considerable against the Enemy He desired them therefore if they had a mist rust of him or a dislike of his Government that they would as clearly let him know it assuring them that such was his desire of the Peoples preservation that there was nothing within his Power consistent with his Duty to the King and agreeable with his Honour that he would not do at their desires for that end Withall letting them see that his continuance with the Name and not the Power of the Lord Lieutenant could bring nothing but ruine upon the Nation as well as dishonour on him So that again he propounded to them in plain terms Either that they would procure a due obedience to be yielded to him or propose some other way by his quitting the Kingdom how it might be preserved After consultation together they return'd with many expressions of respects and affection to his Person and faithfully promis'd to endeavour all that obedience he desir'd withall presenting the 13th of March to him a Paper of Advice which contained as they said certain Remedies for removing the discontents and disgusts of the People and for the advancing of his Majesties Service Amongst which they proposed That a Privy Council might be framed by the Peers and other of the Natives of the Kingdom as well Spiritual as Temporal to sit daily with him and determine all the weighty Affairs of the Countrey by their Council and many other Particulars concerning the raising of Men and conducting the War To every one of which his Excellency from Limerick gave them sitting at Loghreogh an Answer in writing amongst which he told them That he could not understand how the present distresses of the Kingdom could proceed from the want of a Privy Council or how the framing of such a Council could advantage the management of the War which by the Articles of Peace was to be done by the Commissioners of Trust with whom he
did always communicate all matters of importance and therefore he could not think it fit unnecessarily to presume upon doing a thing for which he had neither Power nor President the Nomination of all Persons to be of the Privy Council being always reserv'd by the King to himself Yet rather than he should be wanting in any thing that was in his power to satisfie the People in he wished that the particular Acts which the Privy Council had heretofore done and were now necessary to be done might be instanced and as far forth as should appear necessary and fit he would qualifie Persons free from just exceptions with such And so answer'd all their Propositions that they seem'd to be well satisfi'd therewith and thereupon published a Declaration dated at Loghreogh the 28th of March 1650. in which they professed That they did and would endeavour to root out of mens hearts all jealousies and finister opinions conceiv'd either against his Excellency or the present Government and that they intreated him to give them further Instructions declaring that they were not deterr'd from the want of the expected Success in the Affairs of the Kingdom but rather animated to give further Onsets and to try all other possible ways and did faithfully promise that no Industry of Care should be wanting in them to receive and execute his Directions When the Marquis first proposed to the Commissioners of Trust that Limerick and other Places might be Garrison'd he offer'd to them the names of three Persons of the Roman Catholick Religion and of eminent Quality Reputation and Fortunes that out of them they might choose one for the Command of Limerick But resolving afterwards to call this Assembly of Bishops thither and to be there himself in Person he deferred the proceeding further in it till then that with their own advice such a Person might be chosen for that important Charge that should be beyond any possibility of a just exception from that Corporation Now he took all imaginable pains and descended to all the Arts of Perswasion to satisfie those Citizens who he perceived were the most leading men of the necessity of their speedy receiving a Governour and a Garrison for the preservation of their Interest and whatsoever could be of any value with any People But he was so far from prevailing with them That they perform'd not those outward Civilities and Respects to him which had been in no other Place denied The Officer who Commanded the City Guards neither came to him for Orders or imparted them to him no Officer of the Army or any other Person could without special leave from the Mayor which was often very hardly obtain'd be admitted to come to his presence to receive his Commands and Directions for the resisting and opposing the Enemy who at that very time prevail'd in the County of Limerick And to publish more the contempt they had of the Kings Authority they committed to Prison the Lord Viscount Kilmallock a Catholick Peer of the Realm and an Officer of the Army the Lord Lieutenant being on the Place for no other reason than for Quartering for one night some few Horsemen under his Command by the Marquis of Ormond's Order within the Liberties of that City All this being done so contrary to the Injunction which the Bishops had published for the direction of the People and at a time when they were assembled there And when the Marquis of Ormond despaired their contempts being so high of perswading them to what absolutely concern'd their proper Interest he thought it not agreeable to the Honour of his Master to remain any longer in the Place where such affronts and contempts were put upon his Authority and yet being willing still to expect some good effects from the observation and discretion of the Bishops who could not but discern what ruine must immediately attend such license and disobedience he appointed all the said Bishops and as many more as could be perswaded to come thither and the Commissioners to meet him at Loghreogh where about the 19th of March they attended him at Loghreogh When they appeared at Loghreogh the Marquis represented to their memories what they had before been themselves witnesses of and observ'd at Limerick and the neglects he had born there Desired them to remove those causless distrusts which being maliciously infused into the Peoples minds did slacken if not wholely withdraw their obedience from his Majesties Authority and wished them to consider how impossible it was for him with Honour or any hope of success to contend against a powerful absolutely obey'd and plentifully supplied Enemy himself under such domestick disadvantages of distrust and disobedience and concluded that if the consequence of the Service could not induce them to be all of one mind in putting a Garrison into Limerick or if being all of one mind they could not induce the City to obedience and submission to such their determination he could no longer entertain a hope of giving any check to the Enemy and would thereupon consider how otherwise to dispose of himself Both the Bishops and Commissioners were really or at least seem'd so and entirely convinc'd of the necessity of erecting that Garrison and of putting that City into a better posture of defence than it then appear'd to be in The Commissioners in whom that Trust was reposed by the Articles of Peace order'd it to be done and sent two of their own Members viz. Sir Richard Everard Baronet and Dr. Fennel with their Order to Limerick and with a Letter to the Mayor to conform thereunto and the Bishops writ to the Archbishop of Cashel and the Bishop of Limerick both then at Limerick desiring them to use their utmost endeavours to incline the City to submit to the direction of the Lord Lieutenant and the Commissioners And having done this they departed to those Places they thought fit to dispose the People as they professed to all acts of conformity and obedience But the Commissioners in short time return'd from Limerick without having in any degree prevail'd with them to receive either a Governour or Garrison or to conform themselves to any Orders the Lord Lieutenant or the Commissioners should send to them otherwise than as they agreed with their own inclinations in stead of making choice of any of those three who were nominated to them for their Governour they upon the matter declared That they would keep that Power in their own hands and for receiving of a Garrison they proposed some particulars what men of the Irish Catholicks and what they would not what course should be taken for the support of them and through what hand it should pass and many other things directly contrary to the Articles of Peace which had been with solemnity proclaimed in that City and unto which they had professed all submission All this perversness obstinacy and ingratitude could not yet extinguish the affections and compassion the Marquis had towards them and he clearly discern'd
and General Governor of the Kingdom of Ireland Chancellor of the University of Dublin and Knight of the most Noble Order of the Garter To our Trusty and Well-beloved Bishop Ever Mac Mahon ORMOND WHereas upon the Treaty with General Owen O Neal deceased it was amongst other Particulars Concluded and Agreed upon that in case of death or removal of him such other General or Commander in Chief should be authorised by Commission from us to Command his Majesties Forces of the Province of Ulster Natives of the Kingdom as should be by general consent of the Gentry of that Province elected and made choice of for the same And whereas in a general Meeting lately held by the Gentry for that purpose it was agreed upon and so represented unto us that you should exercise that Command over the said Forces We therefore upon the Consideration thereof and of the Care Judgment Valour and Expedience in Martial Affairs as also of the readiness and good affections of you to do his Majesties Service have nominated and appointed and we do hereby nominate and appoint you the said Bishop Ever Mac Mahon to be General of all his Majesties said Forces of Horse and Foot of the Province of Ulster Natives of the Kingdom Giving thereby unto you the said Bishop Ever Mac Mahon full Power and Authority to take the said Charge and Employment upon you and the said Forces and every of them to Lead and Command according to the use and discipline of War and such further Order and Instructions as you shall from time to time receive from us or other his Majesties chief Governor or Governors of this Kingdom the time being in that behalf willing and hereby requiring all the Officers Troopers and Soldiers of the said Forces to obey you as their General and to be at and perform your Commands as they shall issue unto them upon all occasions of his Majesties Service as they will answer the contrary In witness whereof we have Signed this our Commission and caused our Seal of Arms to be thereunto affixed at Loghreogh the first day of April 1650. In execution of which the Bishop with great activity and courage proceeded in infesting the English Garrisons and Army in that Province as much as was in his Power And having an Army consisting of about 5000 Horse and Foot about the 20th of June 1650. when the Lord Lieutenant himself could not draw 1000 men together or keep them if together the space of 48 hours he encountred not far from London-derry with Sir Charles Coot who Commanded the Parliaments Forces in Chief in that Quarter and was then inferior in Foot to the Bishop though otherwise he had a great advantage of him by having near treble the number of Horse Notwithstanding which inequality the Irish for a while behaved themselves handsomly but in the end were totally defeated so that the Bishop was compelled after he saw the day was irrecoverably lost to quit the Field with a small party of Horse The next day in his flight he had the misfortune near Eniskelin to meet with the Governor Major King of that Town in the Head of a Party too strong for him against which however the Bishop defended himself with notable courage though after he had received many wounds he was taken Prisoner and soon after by the positive Order of Sir Charles Coot whom within less then a year he had reliev'd when in great extremity hang'd This was a most happy Victory for the Parliament in that 3000 of the Rebels were there slain all meer Irish out of an opinion they could not prosper as long as they had any English joyn'd with them and for that end had throughly purg'd their Army which being stiled by them the Confident Victorious Army of the North had a full return of Gods Vengeance they being the first Incendiaries and Actors in those barbarous Cruelties which ensued their Insurrection This was the unfortunate end of that unhappy Prelate of whom since he bore so great a Part in the Troubles of Ireland and was much superior in Parts to any man of that Party it will not be impertinent or uncharitable to mention some Passages of his Life that thereby his nature and disposition may be the better collected and indeed the spirit and temper of mind which those kind of men were possessed with who had the greatest abilities to do hurt Some few years before the Rebellion this Ever Mac Mahon being then an Arch Priest and residing for the most part in or near Dublin repair'd as you have heard to a Prime Instrument of State and discovered to him the Contrivances abroad in reference to bring Troubles upon that Kingdom who being thereupon Pardon'd still as any thing of that nature proceeded inform'd the State thereof And though according to the formality of Law he should have sued out his Pardon yet that he might still be confided in by the Confederates who knew not who the Discoverer was he meerly trusted to the Kings Mercy and Clemency and through the Government of the Earl of Strafford he prov'd faithful to the Crown From the beginning of this Rebellion his Power was very great with those that were opposite to any Reconciliation upon the first and 2 Conclusion of Peacy by the Confederate Catholicks continuing firm to that Party which followed Owen O Neal or rather Govern'd Owen O Neal who commanded that Party and over and above those demands which concern'd Religion to which they seem'd to adhere with more then ordinary zeal and thereby drew a dependency of that Clergy to them they insisted upon the Restitution of the great Estates in Ulster which was not in the Power of the Crown to make without violation of several Acts of Parliament and defeating many descents and purchases which had passed without any interruption or claim for the space of 150 years This impossible expectation kept both Owen O Neal and the Bishop of Clogher from concurring with the Confederate Catholicks in the Peace they made with his Majesty 1648. and the Animosity they contracted against the Confederates inclined them to relieve London-derry when as is remembred before it was even ready to be reduced by his Majesties Forces rather then to submit to the Peace made by them with the Lord Lieutenant To whose Divisions the State of England saith Rely Archbishop of Armagh ows their present Possession of Ireland and therefore infers that that Party of the Irish Natives ought to be not onely on that account Favour'd and Trusted but because also they never had affection for the King or his Family Yet after they had found it necessary to make that agreement with the Marquess in 1649. being neglected by the Parliament it must be acknowledged that the Bishop performed and observ'd it very justly as he was punctual in what he promised and applied himself with all dexterity and industry to the advancement of his Majesties Interest so that during his time he restrain'd the Clergy
Rapotensis Nico. Fernensis Procurator Arch. Dublin Eug. Kilmore Walt. Clonfert Procurator Leghlin c. Jamestown 10. Aug. 1650. When viz. the 12. of the same the two Persons had delivered their Credential Letter to the Lord Lieutenant he wished them in regard of the importance of the Matter they were instructed with to set down what they had in Command in Writing whereupon they presented him the 13th with this following Letter May it please your Excellency WE being intrusted by the Clergy met at Jamestown to deliver a Message unto your Excellency importing their advice what the onely means is as they conceive that may serve to free the Nation from the sad Condition whereunto it is reduced at present do in obedience to your Excellencies Commands signified for giving in the Substance of the said Message in Writing humbly present the same as followeth That whereas they doubt not your Excellency hath labour'd by other hands to bring the best Aids that possibly could be had from abroad for the Relief of this gasping Nation yet finding now in their Consciencies no other expedient Remedy for the preservation thereof and of his Majesties Interests therein more prevalent then your Excellencies speedy repair to his Majesty for preventing the Ruine and Dissolution of all and leaving the Kings Authority in the hands of some Person or Persons faithful to his Majesty and trusty to the Nation and such as the affection and confidence of the People will follow by which the Rage and Fury of the Enemy may receive Interruption They humbly offer this important Matter of the Safety or Destruction of this Nation and the Kings Interest to your Wisdom and Consideration hoping the Kingdom by your Excellencies Presence with his Majesty and intrusting safely the Kings Authority as above may with Gods blessing hold out until reliev'd with Supplies from his Majesty The Prelates will in the mean time do what lies in their Power to assist the Person or Persons so intrusted The great Trust his Majesty doth repose in your Excellency the vast Interest in Fortune Alliance and Kindred you have in this Nation and your experience in the management of Affairs of greatest Consequence will we doubt not added to other the Reasons proposed by us induce you to embrace this Advice as proceeding from our pious Intentions that look onely on the preservation of the Catholick Religion the support of his Majesties Authority and the Estates Liberties and Fortunes of his Subjects of this Kingdom which we humbly offer as Your Excellencies most humble Servants Fr. Oliver Dromore Charles Kelly Aug. 13th 1650. Though the Marquess did not expect that the Meeting of the Bishops and Clergy in that manner at Jamestown would have produced any better effect than their former Meetings in other Places had done yet he could not imagine that their Presumption would have been so great as it appear'd by this Message to be And when he communicated it to the Commissioners of Trust they were no less seemingly scandalized at it and believ'd that upon serious Conference with the Bishops they should be able to reform their Understandings and their Wills and therefore desired the Marquess that instead of sending a particular Answer to the Matter of the Message he would write to them To give him a Meeting at Loghreogh on the 26th of the same month to the end that upon a free Conference they might be induced to understand how pernicious a thing they had advised in order to their own security And the Bishop of Dromore and Dr. Kelly return'd with this Proposition and the Marquess making no doubt of their Compliance so far as to meet at the Place appointed went thither at the day assigned but they instead of meeting him themselves sent their Bishops of Cork and Clonfert no otherwise intrusted then to receive his Answer to the Proposition they had made for his leaving the Kingdom To which when he saw he could not draw them to a Conference he the 31. of August return'd That they might well remember that upon the Disobediences he had formerly met with he had obtain'd leave from his Majesty to have departed the Kingdom and that if themselves the Bishops Nobility and Gentry met together had not in April last in Writing and Discourse given him assurance that they not only desired his stay but would endeavour to procure such obedience to him as might enable him with hope of success to have gone on in the War he would have made use of the liberty given unto him by his Majesty to have freed himself from the vexation which he had since endured and the dishonour which he fore-saw he should be subject to for want of Power without which as he then told them he should be able to do nothing considerable for the King or the Nation That he had transmitted those Assurances to his Majesty with his own resolution to attend the Effects That he plainly observed that the Division was great in the Nation under his Government yet it would be greater upon his removal of which in a free Conference he would have given them such pregnant Evidence as he held it not fit to declare to them by writing For these and other Reasons he told them That unless he was forced by in-evitable necessity he was not willing to remove out of the Kingdom and desired them to use all means within their Power to dispose the People to that Dutifulness and Obedience that became them This wrought nothing on the Temper of those Men who were resolved not to be satisfied with any thing the Marquess could say unto them Insomuch that within few days after they had receiv'd his Answer from Loghreogh at the time when the Parliamentarians were strong in the Field and had then passed the Shannon if they had not been restrained by the few Troops the Marquess still kept on foot they published an Excommunication against all those of what Quality soever who should feed help or adhere unto the Lord Lieutenant in which this Circumstance is observable That though they did not publish this Excommunication until the 15th of September it was enacted in their Assembly at Jamestown the 12th of August which was within two days after they had sent the Bishop of Dromore and Dr. Kelly to perswade the Marquess to leave the Kingdom and the day before they delivered their Message So that they thought any thing that the Lord Lieutenant should return to them would be impertinent to the Matter in hand or if they were not so delighted with their own Proceedings that they have themselves carefully published to the World in Print would it be believ'd that Persons who in the least degree pretended the care of the Peoples welfare and security could at such a time when a potent Enemy was in the Field set all Men loose from all Government Civil and Martial and not direct them whom they should follow and obey For if it be said That
and set at liberty by him and whom the Bishops themselves in their Letter of the 12th of September 1650. to the Earl of Westmeath c. do acknowledge to be preserved by the Marquess and for which many will rather expect an Apology than for any Jealousie he could entertain of the Persons who behaved themselves in that manner towards the King's Lord Lieutenant They charge him with having represented to his Majesty that some Parts of the Kingdom were dis-obedient which absolutely deny any Dis-obedience by them committed and that thereby he had procured from his Majesty a Letter to withdraw his own Person and the Royal Authority if such dis-obedience was multiplied and so leave the People without the Benefit of Peace This was the Reward his Excellency out of his Envy to a Catholick Loyal Nation prepared for their Loyalty and Obedience seal'd by the shedding of their blood and the loss of their substance Whether the obstinate and Rebellious carriage of Waterford Limerick and other Places which brought destruction upon themselves did not deserve and require such a Representation to be made unto the King may be judged by all men upon what hath been before truly set down of those Particulars and if the Places themselves had not acknowledged that dis-obedience yet the Prelates seemed to lament those Acts of Dis-obedience and most earnestly disswaded him from leaving the Kingdom promising all their endeavours to reduce the People to Obedience which was onely in their Power to have done else the Marquess would not so long have exposed Himself and his Honour to those Reproaches or suffered his Person with the Impotent Title of Lord Lieutenant of Ireland to have remained in that Kingdom and every day to hear of the rendring and betraying of Places to the Enemy which he could no more remedy then he could infuse a Spirit of Obedience Unity and Understanding into that unhappy infatuated Nation Yet he was so far from wishing that his Majesty should absolutely withdraw his Royal Authority from them how unworthy soever they made themselves of it that he offered to leave the Kings Power in the Person of the Marquess of Clanrickard as he afterwards did hoping that since their great exception was to him for being a Protestant they would with all Alacrity have complied with the other who is known to be a most zealous Roman Catholick yet a great Royalist They reproach'd him That while he was an Enemy to the Catholicks he had been very active in unnatural executions against them and shedding the blood of poor Priests and Churchmen But since the Peace he had shewed little of action keeping himself in Connaght and Thomond where no danger was or the Enemy appear'd not Here you see they would neither suffer him to have an Army to oppose the Enemy nor be content that he should retire into those Places where the Enemy could least infest him and from whence with those few Troops which remained with him he defended the Shannon and kept the Enemy from getting over the River while he staid there And for the former activity and success against them which they were content to impute to him it was when he had a free election of Officers an absolute Power over his Garrisons where he caused the Soldiers continually to be exercised their Arms kept in order and from whence he could have drawn his Army together and have march'd with it to what place he would which advantages he was now without and the Enemy possessed of and therefore it was no wonder that they now obtain'd their Victories as easily as he had done formerly But since they were so disingenious and ungrateful there being many amongst them whose lives he had saved not without suspicion of being favourable to them when he should have been just to charge him with being active in unnatural executions against them and in shedding the blood of poor Priests and Church-men and for the Improvement and Propagation of Calumny it hath pleased some Persons to cause that Declaration to be Translated in Latin and Printed thereby to make him odious to the Roman Catholicks and have named two Priests who they say were by his order Executed and put to death in cold blood and after his promise given to save their lives whose names were Mr. Higgins and Mr. White It will not be impertinent to set down at large the Case of these two Persons that from thence men who have no mind to be deceived and mislead may judge of the Candor and Sincerity of those Persons who would obtrude such Calumnies to the World It must therefore be known that when these two Priests were put to death the War was conducted and carried on by the two Houses of Parliament that the Government of Ireland was in the hands of the two Lords Justices who upon the inhumane and barbarous Cruelties first practised by the Irish Catholicks in the beginning of the Rebellion had forbidden any quarter to be given to those whom they found in Arms and principally against all Priests known Incendaries of that Rebellion and prime Actors in exemplary Cruelties and the Marquess of Ormond was then onely Lieutenant General of the Army and received all Orders from the Lords Justices and Council who having intelligence that a Party of the Rebels intended to be at such a time at the Naas order'd him to draw some Troops together with hope to surprize them And the Lieutenant General marching all night came early in the morning into the Town from whence the Rebels upon notice were newly fled In this Town some of the Souldiers found Mr. Higgins who might it's true have easily fled if he had apprehended any danger in the stay When he was brought before the Marquess he voluntarily acknowledged that he was a Priest and that his Residence was in the Town from whence he refused to fly away with those that were guilty because he not onely knew himself very innocent but believ'd he should not be without ample Evidence of it having by his sole Charity and Power preserved very many of the English Protestants from the rage and fury of the Irish and therefore he onely besought the Marquess to preserve him from the violence of the Souldiers and to put him securely into Dublin to be tried for any Crime which the Marquess promis'd to do and perform'd it though with so much hazard that when it was spread abroad amongst the Souldiers that he was a Priest the Officer into whose Custody he was intrusted was assaulted by them and it was as much as the Marquess could do to relieve him and compose the mutiny When he came to Dublin he informed the Lords Justices and Council of the Prisoner he had brought with him of the good Testimony he had receiv'd of his peaceable Carriage of the pains he had taken to restrain those with whom he had Credit from entring into Rebellion and of very many charitable Offices he had perform'd of which there wanted not
Expedition at Kilkenny Nor was it possible for the Marquis of Ormond to procure Justice to be inflicted in a Civil or Martial way upon an Ecclesiastical Person let his crime be what it would since even they whose zeal and affection to his Majesties Service was unquestionable and who were as highly offended at the intolerable carriage and proceedings of the Bishops and Clergy as they ought to be and whose duty was not in the least degree shaken by their Declaration and Excommunication were yet so tender of those Immunities and Priviledges which were said to belong to the Church and so jealous of the behaviour of the People in any case which should be declared a violation of those Priviledges that they would by no means have an hand in inflicting capital punishment upon any Church-men without the approbation and co-operation of the Bishops who were not like to be so hard-hearted as to consent unto any judgment upon the Accessories in those crimes in which themselves were the Principal So that he must not onely have determined by his own single will and judgment what was to be done in those Cases but he must have executed those determinations with his own hand And this consideration obliged the Marquis to all those condescensions and sufferings and upon all occasions to endeavour to dispose and perswade those Prelates from any obstinate and ruinous resolutions rather than to declare them to be enemies whom he could neither reform or punish The Excommunication was no sooner published by the Congregation and consented and approved by the other part of the Bishops and Clergy sitting at Galway but they quickly discerned how imprudently as well as unwarrantably they had proceeded in order to their own ends and that they had taken care onely to dissolve and disband all their Forces without making any kind of provision for the opposition of the Parliaments Forces who had quickly notice of their ridiculous madness and were thereupon advancing with their whole Power upon them the people generally who foresaw what must be the issue of that confusion thought of nothing but compounding with the Enemy upon any condition the Nobility prime Gentry and the Commissioners of Trust who saw their whole Power and Jurisdiction wrested from them and assumed and exercised by the Congregation continued their application to the Lord Lieutenant and desired him not to leave them exposed to the confusion which must attend his departure The gravest and most pious Clergy lamented the unskilful spirit of the rest and even some of the Bishops and others who were present at the Congregation and subscrib'd to the Excommunication disclaim'd their having consented to it though they were oblig'd to sign it for conformity So that they found it necessary within less than three days after the publishing it to suspend that dreadful Sentence and yet that it might appear how unwillingly they did those acts of sobriety and gentleness it will not be amiss to set down the Letter it self which the Titular Bishop of Clonfert and Doctor Charles Kelly writ to the Officers of the Army under the Command of the Lord Marquis of Clanrickard to that purpose which was in these words SIRS YEster day we received an Express from the rest of our Congregation at Galway bearing their sense to suspend the effect of the Excommunication proclaimed by their Orders till the service at Athlone be performed fearing on the one side a dispersion of the Army and on the other side have received certain intelligence of the Enemies approach unto that Place with their full force and number of fighting men and thereupon would have us concur with them in suspending the said Excommunication As for our part we do judge that suspension to be unnecessary and full of inconveniencies which we apprehend may ensue because the Excommunication may be obeyed and the service not neglected if the People were pleased to undertake the service in the Clergies name without relation to the Lord of Ormond Yet fearing the censure of singularity in a matter of so high a strain against us or to be deem'd more forward in Excommunicating then others also fearing the weakness of some which we believ'd the Congregation fear'd we are pleas'd to follow the major Vote and against our own opinion concur with them and do hereby suspend the said Censure as above provided always that after the Service perform'd or the Service be thought unnecessary by the Clergy or when the said Clergy shall renew it it shall be presently incurred as if the said Suspension had never been interposed And so we remain Your assured loving Friends in Christ Walter Bish. of Clonfert Charles Kelly Corbeg Sept. 16. 1650. If this Authentick Truth of which there is not room for the least doubt were not inserted who could believe it possible that men endu'd with common understanding and professing the Doctrine of Christianity and Allegiance of Subjects could upon deliberation publish such Decrees And who can wonder that a People enslaved to and conducted by such Spiritual Leaders should become a Prey to any Enemy though supplied with less power vigilance and dexterity than the Parliaments Forces always were who have prevailed against them and who by all kind of reproaches rigour and tyranny have made that froward and unhappy Congregation pay dear Interest for the contempt and indignity with which they prosecuted their Sovereign and his Authority His Majesty that now is being about this time in Scotland in prosecution of the recovery of his Kingdoms was by the Kirk Party which possess'd the Power of that Kingdom forced to sign a Declaration By which the Peace concluded with the Irish Catholicks in 1648. by Authority of the late King of ever glorious memory and confirmed by himself was pronounced and adjudged void and that his Majesty was absolved from any observation of it And this not grounded upon those particular Breaches Violations and Affronts which had been offered to his Majesties Authority and contrary to the express Articles Proviso's and Promises of that Treaty but upon the supposed unlawfulness of concluding any Peace with those Persons who were branded with many ignominious reproaches And though this Declaration in point of time issued after the Excommunication at James-town yet the notice of it came so near the time of the publication of the other that the Clergy inserted it in their Declaration as if it had been one of the principal Causes of their Excommunication thereby deluding the People as if that expedient of their Excommunication had been the onely foundation of security to the Nation and their particular Fortunes When the Marquis first heard of that Declaration in Scotland he did really believe it a Forgery contrived either by the Parliament or the Irish Congregation to seduce the People from their Affection and Loyalty to the King but soon after viz. the 13th of October being assured of its authentickness he immediately with the advice of the Commissioners
to prescribe invite all his Majesties Roman Catholick Subjects to such a Declaration which yet until they should understand the Clergies sense upon the first Proviso they said they did humbly as fit for a time to forbear To the fourth they answered That whatsomever his Excellency should find to be within their power and would direct to be done concerning the Place of Residence for his Person they would readily obey his Lordships command therein To the fifth they answered That upon conference with his Excellency of the Places fit to be Garrison'd and the number of Men fit to be put in them they would according to the Articles of Peace use their utmost endeavours to have such Garrisons so agreed upon admitted And to the last they said They had at all times been ready and willing that his Excellencies Charge should be supported out of the Revenue of the Kingdom and that they were now ready to concur in assigning any of the Dues already accrued or such as should grow due hereafter or to impose any new Allotment upon the Subject towards his maintenance When the Lord Lieutenant perceived that the temper and desire of the Commissioners of Trust was so different from that of the Congregation and that in truth they were afflicted and scandalized at the exorbitancy of the other and that they thought they should be able to reduce them from the destructive Counsels they were engaged in He would not upon any experience or judgment of his own restrain them from attempting what was not impossible to compass and which many would have concluded would be compassed if attempted and which what other effect soever it had would make evident that there was not a concurrence in the Nation in those Acts which were likely to destroy the Kingdom And therefore he willingly consented that the Commissioners should go to Gallway where the Committee of the Congregation resided whereof the Bishop of Ferns was one to whom they shewed the Letter they received from the Lord Lieutenant and desired them to consider the state of the Kingdom and to know from them what they conceiv'd remain'd that might best tend to the preservation of the Nation without keeping the Kings Authority amongst them for that many of the most considerable would instantly make their conditions with the Enemy if the Kings Authority were taken away and that there was no hope of keeping or leaving that Authority but by revoking the Excommunication and Declaration For the Lord Lieutenant would not stay to keep it nor would he leave it nor the Marquis of Clanrickard undergo it but on these terms And hereupon they used all those Reasons and Arguments which cannot but occur to all men who are not blinded with Passion and Prejudice to induce them to such a Retraction as could onely advance the happiness or indeed the subsistence of the Nation But the Bishops were inexorable and instead of abating any of that fury they had formerly express'd that added new contumelies and reproaches to all the Authority of the King they said They observ'd by the Lord Lieutenants Letter that he had informed his Majesty of the Disobediences and Affronts that had been put upon his Authority and consequently that he had suggested matter unto his Majesty for making that Declaration against the Peace That they had perused the Declaration which had been published in Scotland disavowing the Peace And that they were of opinion for ought appeared to them That the King had withdrawn his Commission and Authority from the Lord Lieutenant That in the said Declaration the Irish Nation as bloody Rebels were cast from the protection of the Kings Laws and Regal Favours And therefore it might be presum'd that he would not have his Authority kept over such a Nation to govern them whereas they had been of opinion and all their endeavours had been employ'd to keep the Kings Authority over them But when his Majesty throws away the Nation as Rebels from his protection withdrawing his own Authority they could not understand the mystery of preserving the same with them or over them nor how it could be done That they believed the best remedy the Kings Authority being taken away by that Declaration of meeting the Inconveniency of the Peoples closing with the Parliament is the returning to the Confederacy as they said was intended by the Nation in case of the breach of Peace on his Majesties part that they said would keep an union amongst them if men would not be precipitately guilty of the breach of their Oath of Association which Oath by two solemn Orders of two several Assemblies was to continue binding if any breach of the Articles of Peace should happen on his Majesties part That the Kings Authority and the Lord Lieutenants Commission being recalled by that Declaration they were of opinion that the Lord Lieutenant had no Authority to delegate his Authority to any other And if they must expose their Lives and Fortunes to the hazard of fighting to the making good of that Peace seeing the danger was alike to defend that or get a better Peace why should they bind themselves within the limits of those Articles so disowned And so with several Tautologies urged the Declaration in Scotland as a ground and excuse for all their proceedings when what they had done as we have before took notice of was before the issuing forth of that Declaration In fine they concluded they could not consent with safety of Conscience to the revoking their Declaration and Excommunication demanded by the Lord Lieutenant nor to give assurance to him or the Commissioners of Trust for not attempting the like for the future And to manifest their inveterate malice against him being in Galway the Captain of the Guard of the Town commonly called The Captain of the Guard of the young men did make search for him in the said Town as after a criminal person or a fugitive thereby endeavouring to bring contempt and scorn upon him and his Majesties Authority placed in him And now you must know they would not make this Declaration in case of Conscience of so vast an extent and importance without forsooth setting down their Reasons under their hands which for the Doctrine sake I would not conceal from the world that it may better judge of those Spiritual Guides who made themselves guilty of that mass of mischief and ruine that flowed from thence Their first Reason was Because the Kings Authority was not in the Lord Lieutenant nor was then they said power in them to confer a new Authority on him which would be destructive to the Nation if it continued in him and preservative in another and that they said was their sense when they declared against the Kings Authority in his Person so that though they had presumption enough to take the Kings Authority out of his Lieutenants hands by their Declaration and Excommunication and to inhibit all men to submit unto it they had now modesty to
Hereupon the Assembly unanimously professed all obedience to his Majesty's Authority as it was vested in him and petition'd him to assume it without which they said the Nation would be expos'd to utter ruine And the Bishop of Ferns hitherto averse to the Royal Authority more particularly importuned him in the Name of the Clergy not to decline a Charge which could only preserve the King's Power in that Kingdom and the Nation from destruction promising so entire a submission and co-operation from the whole Clergy that his Authority should not be disputed In further assurance of which the General Assembly issue forth this Declaration By the General Assembly of the Kingdom of Ireland ALthough this Assembly hath endeavour'd by their Declaration of the 7th of this month to give full testimony of their Obedience to his Majesty's Authority yet for further satisfaction and for removal of all Jealousies we do further declare That the Lords Spiritual and Temporal Gentry or People Clergy or Laity of this Kingdom shall not attempt labour endeavour or do any Act or Acts to set free or discharge the People from yielding due and perfect Obedience to his Majesty's Authority invested in the Lord Marquess of Clanrickard or any other Governour or Governours of this Kingdom And in case of any such Labour Act or Endeavour by which any mischief might ensue by seducing the People we declare That no person or persons shall or ought to be led thereby but by their disobedience on any such grounds are liable and subject to the heavy censures and penalties of the Laws of the Land in force and practis'd in the Reign of Henry the 7th and other Catholick Times Nevertheless it is further declared That it is not meant or intended by any thing herein contained that this Nation will not insist upon the performances of the Articles of Peace and by all just ways and means provide against the breach and violation of the same And inasmuch as his Majesty is at present as we are informed in the hands of a Presbyterian Party of the Scots who declared themselves Enemies to this Nation and vowed the extirpation of our Religion we declare That it is not hereby intended to oblige our selves to deceive obey or observe any Governours that shall come and duely nominated or procured from his Majesty by reason of or during his being in an un-free condition that may raise a disturbance in the present Government established by his Majesty's Authority or the violation of the Articles of Peace Loghreogh 23d of Decemb. 1650. Copia vera Joh. Comyn Dep. Cler. There was then in the possession of the Roman Catholicks the entire Province of Connaght in which they had the strong Castle of Athlone the strong and important Town and Harbour of Gallway Sligo and many other lesser Forts and Places of strength They had also a good part of the Province of Munster and in it the City of Limerick which by the strong situation of it and the advantages it might have from Sea could alone with the help of Gallway have maintain'd War against all the Parliaments Forces in Ireland They had many Parties of Horse and Foot in Leimster Munster and Ulster under Clanrickard Castlehaven Dillon Muskery the Earl of Westmeath Hugh O Neal Dungan Moor Preston and others which being drawn together would have constituted a greater Army than the Enemies were Masters of And the Marquess of Clanrickard had argument enough of hope if he could have been confident of the union of the Nation and that he might reasonably have promised himself if he could have been confident of the Affection and Integrity of the Clergy which at length they promised with that solemnity that if he had not confided therein the fault would have been imputed to him for they could do no more on their part to create a belief in him He was therefore content to take the Charge upon him and obliged them presently to consider of the way to keep all the Forces together when he should have drawn them together and to secure the two Towns of Gallway and Limerick with strong Garrisons which was the first Work concluded on all hands necessary to be performed Very few days had passed after the Lord Deputy had upon such their Importtunity and Professions taken the Government upon him when it was proposed in the Assembly before their Condition was impaired by any other progress or new success of the Enemy That they might send to the Enemy to treat with them upon surrendring of all that was left into their hands an Inclination the Nuncio was long before inclin'd to perswading the supream Council when there was but so much as a speech of Truce to joyn rather with the Parliamentary Scots than the Royalists and pray'd for the success thereof in hopes that thence much good might accrue to the Catholick Religion And when the same was opposed with indignation by the major part of the Assembly the Bishop of Ferns himself who had so lately importuned the Marquess of Clanrickard to assume the Charge of Lord Deputy and made such ample promises in the Name of the Clergy seem'd to concur with those who were against treating with the Enemy but instead of it very earnestly pressed That they might in order to their better defence return to their ancient Confederacy and so proceed in their Preservation without any respect to the King's Authority And this Motion found such concurrence in the Assembly from the Bishops Clergy and many others that many of the Officers of the Army and some of the principalest of the Nobility and Gentry found it necessary to express more than ordinary passion in their contradiction They told them They now manifested that it was not their Prejudice to the Marquess of Ormond nor their Zeal to Religion that had transported them but their dislike of the King's Authority and their resolution to withdraw themselves from it That they themselves would constantly submit to it and defend it with their utmost hazard as long as they should be able and when they should be reduced to Extremity that treating with the Enemy could no longer be deferred they would in that Treaty make no provision for them but be contented that they should be excluded from any benefit thereof who were so forward to exclude the King's Authority Upon these bold though necessary Menaces to which they had not been accustomed the Clergy and their Party seem'd to acquiesce and promised all concurrence inasmuch as from this very time all the Factions and Jealousies which had been before amongst them seem'd outwardly quieted though the Irish in all Quarters of which the Enemy were possessed not only submitted and compounded but very many of them enter'd into their Service and marched with them in their Armies and the Lord Deputy grew as much into their dis-favour as the Lord Lieutenant had been and his being a Friend to the Marquess of Ormond destroyed all that Confidence which his being
the issue of that Treaty was and what regard there was had therein to the King's Honour we have in the next Place reason to mention And the rather for that those whom the Marquess of Clanrickard authorized to Treat with the Duke of Lorraign had most perfidiously wav'd his Instructions resuming to themselves a Deputation and Authority from the People and Kingdom of Ireland An Insolency so great as the Lord Deputy resents it with a just Indignation First we shall give you their Agreement then his Letter An Agreement betwixt Charles the 4th Duke of Lorrain and Theobald Lord Viscount Taaff Sir Nicholas Plunket and Jeffrey Brown deputed and authorized by the People and Kingdom of Ireland 1. THe most Illustrious Duke is to be vested with Royal Power under the Title of Protector Royal of Ireland 2. Because Religion is the prime End and Subject of the Treaty all is to begin with an Imploring Application to the Pope for his Paternal Benediction and Help That he will not be wanting in things Spiritual or Temporal in consideration whereof it is Protested that constant perpetual Obsequiousness of Duty and Faithfulness shall be paid to his Holiness and the Apostolick See 3. In consideration of this Royal Protector 's Power granted the Duke is by War to prosecute the Kings Enemies and afford him all possible Assistance 4. The said Duke is to do nothing in Derogation of the Kings Authority or Jurisdiction in Ireland but rather to amplifie it And having restored the Kingdom and Religion to its due pristine Estate he is to resign cheerfully the Kingdom to the King 5. Before Resignation as aforesaid the Duke is to be re-imbursed all by him pre-impended in this Business and for this Re-imbursment a general and exact Obedience to the Duke in Faith and Fidelity from the Kingdom and People is made and to be observ'd without reservation to any other Superiority whatsoever 6. The Duke is not to fail on his part to expel out of Ireland Hereticks Enemies to the King and his Religion and to recover and defend all things belonging to the faithful Subjects of Ireland 7. The Duke is Solely and Absolutely to exercise all Military Power for the present and future in Ireland as to the nomination of all Commanders and guiding all Martial Proceedings at his own Pleasure and in his own Person unless he in his absence substitute some other Catholick Person 8. The Duke is to introduce no Innovation in the Towns c. to him assigned repugnant to the Securities Priviledges Immunities Proprieties Lands Estates or antient Laws of the Irish reserving onely to himself Authority to apply Remedies to any thing accruing wherein publick prejudice may be concern'd 9. The Duke is not to interpose in Administration of Judicial or Civil Affairs but leave them to be proceeded in according to the Fundamental Laws and publick Form of the Kings chief Governor and the Assembly instituted 10. The manner of calling Assemblies to be as formerly unless complaint arise against their Government or other extraordinary Emergencies hinder And then according to the antient Laws the cutting off the Assembly is to be at the Pleasure of his Highness 11. When the work is done in Ireland by consent of a General Assembly the Duke promises to afford Agents to the King against Rebelling Adversaries in other Kingdoms 12. In case the Duke cannot go in Person into Ireland it is free in his Choice and Pleasure to depute any other man of Catholick Piety who shall be independent on the Militia and in Civil Matters shall be received to all manner of Councils in the same right as any other Counsellor or Commissioner 13. All Cities Castles Lands taken from the English shall revert to the Owners if Catholicks who have constantly persevered in the Catholick Quarters under the Duke Yet the Duke's Military Power shall be intire over the same to Garrison and dispose of them for publick Security at his Pleasure 14. All Pay to the Souldiers is to pass from the Duke as well out of the publick Revenues as the Duke's Coffers when that fails Provided that the Duke disburses of his proper Money for publick uses for the future to be repaid him as his former Disbursements 15. All Goods of Enemies and Dilinquents are to be converted to the publick Military Charges and towards rewarding great Merits by the Duke with advice of the General Assembly 16. The Duke besides 20000 l. already contributed promises all further Accommodations and Supplements for War together with his Power and Industry what is not above the reach of his Faculties and beneath the necessities of the War towards the repayment whereof as well principal as the annual provenue and use thereof the whole Nation of Ireland is to be liable until the last penny be paid And for Caution in the mean time the Duke is to be seized and possessed in his own hands of Galway Limerick Athenry the Castle and Town of Athlone and Waterford and the Royal Fort of Duncannon when recovered from the Enemy and these are to remain to him and his Heirs until full and intire satisfaction receiv'd and to pay just Obedience and be garrison'd and commanded at his Pleasure 17. In laying of publick Taxes and levying the same for the Dukes satisfaction the Duke do proceed by Advice of the General Assembly and all aggrieved Parties in case of inequality to seek Redress from the General Assembly 18. For liquidating and stateing the Dukes Disbursements a certain Method shall be agreed on between the Duke and the said Transactors but for the Persons to be intrusted in that Charge the General Assembly is to alter them at their Pleasure 19 The Duke shall make no Peace nor Cessation without the Lord Deputy or General Assembly 20. The Lord Deputy and General Assembly shall make no Peace without the consent of the Duke July 22. 1651. Signed Charles of Lorraign The Lord Marquess of Clanrickard Lord Deputy of Ireland his Letter to the Duke of Lorraign Octob. 20th 1651. May it please your Highness I Had the Honour on the 12th of this instant to receive a Letter from your Highness dated the 10th of September wherein you are pleased to express your great zeal for the advancement of the Catholick Religion in this Kingdom your great affection to the King my Master and your good opinion of this Nation and your compassion of their sufferings and your great readiness to afford them aid and assistance even equal with your own nearest concernments and that your Highness received such satisfaction from the Queen and Duke of York as did much strengthen those resolutions so as they might sooner appear but for the stay made here of Monsieur St. Catherin and his long Northern Voyage upon his return and referred what concerned the agreement to the relation of those Commissioners I had imployed to your Highness to treat upon that subject of Assistance and Relief for this Kingdom I with much alacrity congratulate
your Highness pious intentions for the preservation of the Catholick Religion your great and Princely care to recover his Majesties Rights and Interests from his Rebel Subjects of England and the high obligation you put upon this Nation by your tender regard of them and desire to redeem them from the great miseries and afflictions they have endured and the eminent dangers they are in And it shall be a principal part of my ambition to be an useful instrument to serve your Highness in so famous and glorious an enterprize And that I may be the more capable to contribute somewhat to so religious and just ends First in discharge of my conscience toward God my duty to the King my Master and to dis-abuse your Highness and give a clear and perfect information so far as comes to my knowledge I am obliged to represent unto your Highness that by the title of the Agreement and Articles therein contained made by those Commissioners I imployed to your Highness and but lately come into my hands They have violated the trust reposed in them by having cast off and declined the Commission and Instructions they had from me in the King my Masters behalf and all other Powers that could by any other means be derived from him and pretend to make an agreement with your Highness in the name of the Kingdom and People of Ireland for which they had not nor could have any warrantable Authority and have abused your Highness by a counterfeit shew of a private Instrument fraudulently procured and signed as I am informed by some inconsiderable and factious Persons ill-affected to his Majesties Authority without any knowledge or consent of the generality of the Nation or Persons of greatest Quality or Interest therein and who under a seeming zeal and pretence of service to your Highness labour more to satisfie their private ambitions then the advantage of Religion or the Nation or the prosperous success of your Highness generous undertakings And to manifest the clearness of mine own proceeding and make such deceitful Practices more apparent I send your Highness herewith an authentick Copy of my Instructions which accompanied their Commission when I imployed them to your Highness as a sufficient evidence to convince them And having thus fully manifested their breach of publick Trust I am obliged in the King my Masters name to protest against their unwarrantable proceedings and to declare all the Agreements and Acts whatsoever concluded by those Commissioners to be void and illegal being not derived from or consonant to his Majesties Authority being in duty bound thus far to vindicate the King my Masters Honour and Authority and to preserve his just and undoubted Rights from such deceitful and rebellious Practices as likewise with an humble and respective care to prevent those prejudices that might befal your Highness in being deluded by counterfeit shews in doing you greater Honour where it is apparent that any undertaking laid upon such false and ill-grounded Principles as have been smoothly digested and fixed upon that Nation as their desire and request must overthrow all those Heroick and Prince-like Acts your Highness hath proposed to your self for Gods glory and service the restauration of oppressed Majesty and the relief of his distressed Kingdom which would at length fall into intestine broils and divivisions if not forceably driven into desperation I shall now with a hopeful and chearful importunity upon a clear score free from those deceits propose to your Highness that for the advancement of all those great ends you aim at and in the King my Masters behalf and in the name of all the Loyal Catholick Subjects of this Nation and for the preservation of those important cautionary Places that are security for your Highness past and present disbursements you will be pleased to quicken and hasten those aids and assistances you intended for the relief of Ireland and I have with my whole power and through the greatest hazards striven to defend them for you and to preserve all other Ports that may be at all times of advantage and safeguard to your Fleets and Men of War having yet many good Harbours left but also engage in the King my Masters name that whatsoever may prove to your satisfaction that is any way consistent with his Honour and Authority and have made my humble applications to the Queens Majesty and my Lord Lieutenant the King being in Scotland further to agree confirm and secure whatsoever may be of advantage to your Highness and if the last Galliot had but brought 10000 l. for this instant time it would have contributed more to the recovery of this Kingdom then far greater sums delayed by enabling our Forces to meet together for the relief of Limerick which cannot but be in great distress after so long a Siege and which if lost although I shall endeavour to prevent it will cost much treasure to be regained And if your Highness will be pleased to go on chearfully freely and seasonably with this great work I make no question but God will give so great a blessing thereto as that my self and all the Loyal Subjects of this Kingdom may soon and justly proclaim and leave recorded to posterity that your Highness was the great and glorious restorer of our Religion Monarch and Nation and that your Highness may not be discouraged or diverted from this generous enterprize by the malice or invectives of any ill affected it is a necessary duty in me to represent unto your Highness that the Bishop of Ferns who as I am informed hath gained some interest in your favour is a Person that hath ever been violent against and malicious to his Majesty's Authority and Government and a fatal Instrument in contriving and fomenting all those divisions and differences that have rent asunder this Kingdom the introduction to our present miseries and weak condition And that your Highness may clearly know his disposition I send herewithal a Copy of part of a Letter written by him directed to the Lord Taaffe Sir Nicholas Plunket and Jeffery Brown and humbly submitted to your judgment whether those expressions be agreeable to the temper of the Apostolical Spirit and considering whose Person and Authority I represent what ought to be the reward of such a crime I must therefore desire your Highness in the King my Masters behalf that he may not be countenanc'd or intrusted in any Affairs that have relation to his Majesties Interest in this Kingdom where I have constantly endeavoured by all possible service to deserve your Highness good opinion and obtaining that favour to be a most faithful acknowledger of it in the capacity and under the title of Your Highness most humble and obliged Servant CLANRICKARD Athenree 20th Octob. 1651. Thus the Lord Deputy very faithfully discharged his duty and great cause there was to protest against such proceedings of the Confederates they putting his Majesties Kingdom of Ireland into the hands of a Foreign Prince and in that
assuming to themselves the name of The Kingdom and People of Ireland as if there had been no other Party or People in the Kingdom or not considerable but themselves alone and as if then in Ireland there had been no Power or Government but theirs onely his Majesties Authority in the hands of his Deputy not regarded or consulted They also the Confederates in that giving up the Kingdom into the Power of a Stranger colouring their Treason with a flattering Clause and an empty and insignificant Title to their Natural Prince in Reversion and by Resignation when the new Protector commanding all should please to do it he being first satisfi'd of all Disbursments Charges and Claims whatsoever he himself being Auditor A Concern of that importance as we seldom find where others have been called in upon Assistance especially on such Encouragements that they have quitted their hold without effusion of much blood or an absolute dis-inherizon of the right Owner And therefore the Lord Deputies foresight of such an Evil doth commend him faithful to his Prince and just to his Nation Nor can it be doubted that the Attestation of this Peer one that hath run the hazard of his Countreys safety should be further credited than what the Bishop of Ferns or any obscure loose Frier how prodigal soever in their Calumnies should or can publish in the bitterness of their spirit a crime incident to their Faculty being ill affected to his Majesty worse to his Governours One of the principal Motives which induced the Marquis of Clanrickard to submit to that Charge and to undertake a Province which he knew would be very burthensome and grievous in several respects was the joynt promise That the City of Limerick and the Town of Galway would pay all imaginable duty to him The Clergy obliged themselves in that particular with all confidence and the Deputies of the Places promised all that could be desir'd But when the Lord Deputy found it necessary to settle that business they would neither receive a Garrison or Governour from him and when he offered himself to stay in Limerick when Ireton was drawing before it and to run his Fortune with them they refused it as peremptorily as they had done to the Lord Lieutenant It is true both Limerick and Galway were contented to receive Soldiers but they must be such onely as were of their own choosing not such either in number or quality as the Lord Deputy would have sent to them or as were necessary for their security They chose likewise their own Governour or rather kept the Government themselves and gave the Title to one whom they thought least like to contradict them and in a word behaved themselves like two Common-wealths and obey'd the Deputy no farther than they were inclined by their own convenience they who compounded with the Enemy in the Countrey corresponded with them in the Town and thereby gave the Enemy intelligence of all that passed Wonderful diligence was used to make it be thought that the Independents were not uncharitable unto Papists and that they wished not any compulsion should be used in matter of Religion and when the acts of cruelty and blood of putting their Priests and Prelates to an ignominious death of which there were new instances every day were mentioned It was answer'd Those proceedings were carried on by the power of the Presbyterians very much against the Nature and Principles of the other Party This license of Communication and the evil consequences that must attend it was enough understood by the Lord Deputy but could no more be prevented reformed or punished than he could infuse a new heart or spirit into the People one instance will serve the turn There was in the Town a Frier Anthony Geoghean who had always adhered to the Nuncio and opposed the King's Authority to the utmost of his power several Letters written by him into the Enemies Quarters were intercepted and brought to the Lord Deputy in which though there were many things in Cypher there appeared much of the present state and condition of the Town and in one of them dated the 4th of Febr. 1651. he thus writes If the service of God had been as deep in the hearts of our Nation as that Idol of Dagon a foolish Loyalty a better course for its honour and preservation had been taken in time The Lord Deputy believed the crime to be so apparent and of such a nature that what Complices soever he might have none would have the courage to appear in his behalf And that he might give the Clergy an opportunity to shew their zeal in a business that concern'd so much their common safety he referr'd the examination of the Frier unto the Bishops whereof there were three or four in Town and to some other of the principal of the Clergy and appointed them to require him to produce the Cypher which he had used and to examine him to whom the Letters were intended they being directed to counterfeit and suppositious names The Cypher was accordingly produced and thereby many expressions in the Letter appear'd to be full of neglect and reproach to the King and others of insolence and contumely toward the Lord Deputy they mention'd little hope was left of relief from the Duke of Lorrain and that they resolved to send one to treat with the Rebels and had found private means of conveying one to that purpose The Frier promised to use all his diligence to dispose the Catholicks to have a good opinion of the Independents and made some request concerning himself All that he alledged for his defence was That the Letters written by him were to one who was employ'd by the Court of Rome that he had no ill meaning against the King or Deputy and that he had himself a Trust from Rome and Instructions from the Secretary of the Congregation De propaganda Fide and the Bishops certifi'd that they had seen the Instructions and that they did not relate at all to the Temporal State And this was all the satisfaction and justice the Lord Deputy could procure though he writ several Letters of Expostulation to the Bishops thereupon Whether this be a part of the Priviledges and Immunities of the Catholick Roman Church and enjoy'd in any Catholick Countrey and whether it can be indulged to them in any other Countrey where the Authority of the Bishop of Rome is not submitted unto we must leave to the World to judge and determine In the interim If Protestant Kings and Princes are provident and severe for the prevention of such practices and for the establishing their own security this must not be imputed to an unreasonable jealousie of or a prejudice to the Roman Catholick Religion but to the confident presumption of those men under the vizard of universal obedience who have pretended Religion for their warrant or excuse for the most unlawful and unjustifiable actions This was the obedience and submission they paid to the Kings
Authority and Government Let us see now what Government they provided for themselves and what course they who were still jealous of being betray'd by those who were trusted by the King took for their own security and preservation and what power the Bishops and Clergy had to support their own Interest and Dignity after they appear'd to have enough to destroy or suppress that of the King The City of Limerick was entirely govern'd by the Clergy We have shewn you how the Herald in proclaming the Peace of 1646. was affronted there as also of their contumelious behaviour towards the Marquis of Ormond in 1650. We must now take notice of their carriage to the Marquis of Clanrickard to whom contrary to their obligation and solemn promise they continued the same obstinacy refusing to receive such a Governour and Garrison as he thought fit to give them or to entertain him in the Town with the Power and Authority of Deputy after he had assum'd that Place and Title upon their own importunity and promise of obedience however he sent thither such men both Officers and Soldiers as they desired and no other During the Siege of Limerick now straitly begirt by Ireton Sir Walther Dungan stormed Ross-town and Castle Jordan and the notable Quarter-beater Nash killed Colonel Cook coming with a Party from Cork but was slain in the onset though his Party was victorious whilst at Limerick the Besieged made many fierce Sallies to the loss of the Assailants for in one of 1000 men they killed above 300 of the Besiegers and upon Ireton's attempt against the Island before the Town the 15th of July 1651. an hundred and twenty of his men were lost with their Leaders Major Walker Captain Graves and Captain Whiting Ireton notwithstanding resolved not to depart without it though the Governour Hugh O Neal who had so gallantly defended Clonmel refused to hearken to any Conditions in hopes that the Winter would force him off or that himself might receive necessary Supplies from without But shortly after he perceived what he was to trust to for before Ireton had close besieged it a month and sooner than the Inhabitants were press'd with wants the Commonalty began to discourse of Treating with the Enemy all the considerations of what they might undergo hereafter through timerousness occurred to them and the improbability of their receiving any succours proportionable to their wants Yet it was very hard for them to Treat it being notoriously known that Ireton would except very many principal Persons amongst them to whom no mercy should be shown nor could they expect any Conditions for the exercise of their Religion they had been hitherto so jealous of The Governour had onely the Title and power to set Watch but the Mayor kept the Keys and had many of the principal Officers at his devotion so that upon the 23d of October a mixed Councel of Officers and of those of the Civil Government met in the Town-house to consult what was best to be done in order to the Treaty with the Enemy contrary to the intentions of the Governour who was resolved to hold it out to the last and after a long debate it was concluded by the major part that they would proceed to a Treaty and that they would not break it off upon the exception of any persons for Quarter or Confiscation of their Goods and the next day was appointed for the choosing of the Commissioners to be sent unto the Enemy The result of the former days debate being known in the Town they no sooner met for the Election of the Commissioners for the Treaty than the Bishops of Limerick and Emly with the Clergy came to the Town-house and threatned them to issue out an Excommunication against them if they proceeded in those Counsels the effect whereof would be to deliver up the Prelates to be slaughter'd notwithstanding which they proceeded to the naming the Persons who should treat for them Whereupon the Bishops published their Excommunication with a perpetual Interdict of the City which was fixed on the doors of all the Churches and Chappels in the Town But alas those Fulminations had been too loosely and impertinently used to retain any vertue in time of need and as Catholick as the Town was and there was not one Protestant in it the Excommunication wrought no effect That very night Colonel Fennel and the other Officers of the Combination that press'd on the Treaty possess'd themselves of St. John's Gate and Cluam's Tower driving the Guards from thence and when the Governour came thither and demanded by what Authority they were there he having given them Orders to Guard another Quarter of the Town they answered The best of the Town knew and approved what they did And it was very true the Mayor Thomas Strick was of their Party and delivered the Key of that Port to Colonel Fennel though he denied it to the other Party that opposed the Treaty The Governour called a Council of War and sent for Colonel Fennel to appear before them who refused to come and being supplied with Powder from the Mayor he turned the Cannon upon the Town and declared That he would not quit the place that he was possessed of till the City should be yielded to the Enemy The Commissioners were sent out to Ireton who would give no other Conditions than That the Garrison should lay down their Arms the Officers retaining their Swords and march to what Place they would except those exempted from mercy who of the Clergy Soldiers and Citizens amounted to the number of 24. The Inhabitants had three months time assign'd them to transport their Persons and three months more to remove their Goods within any Place the Kingdom appointed in which they might live In brief these were their Conditions but in respect of many things very considerable in the Articles themselves we shall here give them at large Articles agreed upon the 27th day of October 1651. by and between Henry Ireton the Deputy General on the one Part and Barthol Stackpoll Recorder of the City of Limerick Dom. White Alderman of the same Nicholas Haly Esq Lieutenant Colonel Piers Lacy Lieutenant Colonel Donnogh O Brion and John Baggot Esq Commissioners appointed by and on the behalf of the Governour and Mayor of the said City to Treat and Conclude for the Surrender thereof on the other Part. THat the City of Limerick with the Castle and all the Places of Strength in the City be surrendred into the hands of the said Deputy General of Ireland for the use of the Parliament and Common-wealth of England upon or before the 29th of Octob. instant at Noon together with all the Ordnance Arms Ammunition and other Furniture of War therein and all the Goods of any kind not allowed by the ensuing Articles to be carried away or kept by the Owners and this without waste spoil or imbezilment and the full possession of Johns Gate and Priors Mill shall be delivered unto the said
the Rebellion all found guilty thereof were excepted from Pardon their Estates confiscated and the others who had only assisted in the War were to forfeit two parts of their Estates and be banished And accordingly great numbers of them were transported into Spain the latter end of this Summer Yet the Marquess of Clanrickard did not leave the Kingdom in many months after the Surrender of Galway but endeavour'd by all means possible to draw the scattered Forces together that he might prosecute the War afresh according to his Majesty's Letters in the years 1650 and 1651. encouraging him to his continuance in Arms as advantagious by way of Diversion to his then intended progress of promoting his Design in Scotland and coming into England And to that end the 16th of May the Marquess of Clanrickard with the Connaght Forces marched to Ballishannon which he took by storm and presently after Dungal-Castle where the Ulster Forces under Sir Phelim O Neal the Relie's and Mahon's joyned with him but upon intelligence that Sir Charles Coot and Colonel Venables were marched against him he retired to Armagh intending for Raphoe Whilst Sir Charles Coot in his pursuit of him retook Ballishanon and Dungal-Castle gaining also Sligo Ballymote and many other Garrisons so as the Marquess was forced to shelter himself in the Isle of Carrick And having receiv'd his Majesty's Command to take care of his own security that he fell not into the Enemy's hands he having no Port to friend where he might choose a Vessel and being so betrayed by the Irish as not securely to stay 24 hours in a Place was compelled to have a Pass from the Parliaments Forces not excepting any other Conditions for himself than that he might for some time remain secure in their Quarters without taking the Oath usually imposed by them and have liberty to transport himself and 3000 Irish more into any Prince's Countrey and Service then in Amity with England which was granted and in March 1652. he was transported into England in a Vessel belonging to the Parliament after he had born the Title of the King's Deputy in Ireland little more than two years not with greater submission from the Catholick Irish than had before been paid to the Lord Lieutenant and so retired to London where not long after he died and was thence carried to Summerhill a pleasant Seat of his own which Bradshaw had in Custodium near Tunbridge in Kent and was buried in the Parish-Church He was a Person much respected for his Integrity and though of a contrary opinion to those then in Usurpation looked on as a Favourer of the English and one that no ways indulged the Cruelties and Pretensions of the Irish. This was the Fate of that unhappy Nation both under Protestant and Roman Catholick Governours neither having had the credit to be Masters of the Irish Temper fomented by the Insolencies of the Priests and whatever might instigate them against the English Government Soon after the Marquess of Clanrickard's Departure the lesser Concerns of that Nation were with little trouble and charge brought in obedience to the Parliament who declared the 26th of September 1653. That the Rebels were subdued and the Rebellion appeased and ended and thereupon proceeded to the Distribution of their Lands in pursuance of the Act for Subscriptions 17 Carol. 1. Some time before which a High Court of Justice was setled in Ireland a Name we have reason not to mention without horrour and astonishment considering who was summoned to such a Tribunal which certainly would never have been how vain how ambitious how prodigious soever some mens Success was a Strumpet often leading one to Attempts above their first thoughts had not the Rebels of Ireland for carrying on their pernicious Practices avouched the sacred Authority for their pretence and colour that though these with Pilate washed their hands from the Blood of this Righteous One yet they have as the shame so the guilt of that Royal Blood on themselves who originally gave the occasion of such a Discourse which afterwards was made one of the pretended Causes for the most barbarous and inhumane Act ever perpretated Inter tragicoe Fortunoe Exempla omnibus retro seculis memorandus Upon which eloquent Du Moulin one of the clearest Lights of the French Church honouring me with a Letter on that Subject thus passionately discovers his Resentment La Morte de vostre bon Roy d'une facon si indigne si horrible par les Maims des Independans M'outre le Coeur de Douleur C'est une action sans Example un opprobre ineffacable a nostre Religion vostre Nation tant Genereuse a elle perdu tout Courage Les Escossoes se taisent ils la dessue Mais quoy Il faut Mettre le doigt sur la bouche adorer les Conseils de Dieu qui sont Inscrutables It is observable let some foam as they please that there were none who so much as pretended to have a Reverence for the Church of England that ever had the least hand in this foul and ugly Business An instance of that is in what the Lord Chancellor Hide acquainted the Parliament with in express words from his Majesty when he was imployed in an Embassy to Spain That the Horrid Murther of his Royal Father was not the Act of the Parliament or People of England but of a very wretched and little Company of Miscreants in the Kingdom fol. 41. Upon which Monsieur Moses Amiraldus the Excellent French Divine hearing of the Protestant Religion aspersed as seditious and treasonable writ a Piece in French in vindication of the Protestant Religion and dedicated it to our King Charles the 2d in the time of his Exile when Militiere and others would have inforced the barbarous Martyrdom of his Royal Father as a just Motive to his apostatizing and not trusting his safety to the Protestant Religion whereas all these blustering Storms as the Bishop of Derry observes in his excellent Tract against Militiere radicated him deeper in his Religion that what these intended for his evil proved his good And certainly whatsoever conspired to compleat so execrable a Design as the Murther of the King nothing contributed more than the Irish deluding his Sacred Majesty so long with their Promises of a competent Army whereby he relying on them too confidently assured of their Ability and Power to perform it deferred those Agreements which else he might have seasonably composed at home And could there ever be an equaller Distribution of God's Vengeance than that they by a parallel Court should suffer the loss of their Estates Lives and Fortunes Which though un-usual was the only Expedient sufficiently set forth in the ensuing Speech of the Lord Lowther's a Person of that Gravity and Worth as whatsoever may be said by others can never reach the State of the Question more fully with less animosity and greater truth than he hath done at the Trial of Sir Phelim O Neal in February
Cahel mac Bryne Farrall APPENDIX VI. Fol. 65. By the Lords Justices and Councel W. Parsons Jo. Borlasse IT is well known to all men but more particularly to his Majesties Subjects of this Kingdom who have all gathered plentiful and comfortable fruits of his Majesties blessed Government how abundantly careful his Majesty hath been in the whole course of his Government of the peace and safety of this his Kingdom and how graciously he hath laboured to derive to all his Subjects therein all those benefits and comforts which from a most gracious King could be conferred on his Subjects to make them a happy people whereof he hath given many great testimonies And as at all times he endeavoured to give them due contentment and satisfaction so even then whilst the Rebels now in Arms were conspiring mischief against Him and his Crown and Kingdom he was then exercising Acts of Grace and benignity towards them granting to his Subjects here the fulness of their own desires in all things so far as with Honour or Justice he possibly could and particularly when the Committees of both Houses of Parliament here this last Summer attended his Majesty in England at which time amongst many other things graciously assented to by Him he was content even with apparent loss and disadvantage to himself to depart with sundry his Rights of very great value which lawfully and justly he might have retained And as his continual goodness to his people and his Princely care of their prosperity and preservation shall to the unspeakable joy and comfort of all his good Subjects render him glorious to all Posterity so the wicked ingratitude and treacherous disloyaltie of those Rebels shall render them infamous to all Ages and utterly inexcusable even in the judgment of those who for any respect either formerly wished well to their persons or now pity them in their transgressions And although the said persons now in Rebellion were in no degree provoked by any just cause of publique grief received from his Majesty or his Ministers to undertake such desperate wickedness neither can justly assign any severity or rigour in the execution of those Laws which are in force in this Kingdom against Papists nor indeed any cause at all other then the unnatural hatred which those persons in Rebellion do bear the Brittish and Protestants whom they desire and publickly profess to root out from amongst them The more strange in that very many of themselves are descended of English whence is the original and foundation of all their Estates and those great benefits which they have hitherto enjoyed and whence their Predecessors and others then well affected in this Kingdom have been at all times since the Conquest cherished relieved countenanced and supported against the ancient Enemies of the Kings people of England many of the Irish also having received their Estates and livelyhood from the unexampled bounty and goodness of the Kings of England Yet such is their inbred ingratitude and disloyaltie as they conspired to massacre Us the Lords Justices and Councel and all the Brittish and Protestants universally throughout this Kingdom and to seize into their hands not only his Majesties Castle of Dublin the principal Fort in this Kingdom but also all other the fortifications thereof though by the infinite goodness and mercy of God those wicked and devillish Conspiracies were brought to light and some of the Principal Conspirators imprisoned in his Majesties Castle of Dublin by Us by his Majesties Authority so as those wicked and damnable plots are disappointed in the chief parts thereof His Majesties said Castle of Dublin and City of Dublin being preserved and put into such a condition of strength as if any of them or their Adherents shall presume to make any attempt thereupon they shall God willing receive that correction shame confusion and destruction which is due to their treacherous and detestable disloyaltie And in pursuit of their bloody intentions they assembled themselves in Arms in hostile manner with Banners displayed surprised divers of his Majesties Forts and Garrisons possessed themselves thereof robbed and spoiled many thousands of his Majesties good Subjects Brittish and Protestants of all their Goods dispossessed them of their Houses and Lands murthered many of them upon the place stripped naked many others of them and so exposed them to nakedness cold and famine as they thereof died imprisoned many others some of them persons of eminent quality laid Siege to divers of his Majesties Forts and Towns yet in his Majesties hands and committed many other barbarous cruelties and execrable inhumanities upon the Persons and Estates of the Brittish and Protestant Subjects of the Kingdom without regard of quality age or sex And to cover their wickedness in those cruel Acts so to deceive the World and to make way if they could to the effecting of their mischievous ends they add yet to their wickedness a further degree of impiety pretending outwardly that what they do is for the maintenance and advancement of the King's Prerogative whereas it appears manifestly that their aims and purposes inwardly are if it were possible for them so to do to wrest from him his Royal Crown and Scepter and his just Soveraignty over this Kingdom and Nation and to deprive him and his lawful Ministers of all Authority and Power here and to place it on such persons as they think fit which can no way stand with his Majesties just Prerogative nor can any equal-minded man be seduced to believe that they can wish well to his Royal Person or any thing that is his who in their actions have expressed such unheard-of hatred malice and scorn of the Brittish Nation as they have done And such is their madness as they consider not that his Sacred Majesty disdains to have his Name or Power so boldly traduced by such wicked malefactors Rebels having never in any Age been esteemed fit supporters of the King's Prerogative much less these who under countenance thereof labour to deface and shake off his Government and extirp his most loyal and faithful Subjects of his other Kingdoms and here whose preservation above all earthly things is and always hath been his Majesties principal study and endeavour which even these Traytors themselves have abundantly found with comfort if they could have been sensible of it And whereas divers Lords and Gentlemen of the English Pale preferred petition unto Us in the behalf of themselves and the rest of the Pale and other the old English of this Kingdom shewing that whereas a late conspiracy of Treason was discovered of ill-affected persons of the old Irish and that thereupon Proclamation was published by Us wherein among other things it was declared that the said Conspiracy was perpetrated by Irish Papists without distinction of any and they doubting that by those general words of Irish Papists they might seem to be involved though they declared themselves confident that we did not intend to include them therein in regard they alleadged they were
other Church Goods pertaing unto their respective Titles with obligations to pay proportionable Rent unto the Souldiers as aforesaid or his payment of their own competent maintenance and lett the Houses Tenements and other Church goods be taken from the Catholicks who heretofore had them as Tenements or otherwise 26. It is committed to the will and disposition of the Ordinary whether and when to enter into the Churches and celebrate Masses therein we command all and every the general Colonels Captains and other Officers of our Catholick Army to whom it appertaineth that they severally punish all transgressors of our aforesaid Command touching Murtherers Maimers Strikers Thieves Robbers and if they fail therein we Command the Parish Priests Curats or Chaplains respectively to declare them interdicted and that they shall be Excommunicated if they cause not due satisfaction to be made unto the Common-wealth and the party offended And this the Parish Priests or Chaplains shall observe under pain of Excommunication of sentence given ipso facto 27. To the end that these Acts Propositions and Ordinances may have more happy success We thought it fitting to have recourse unto God Almighty by Prayers Fastings and Alms We therefore will pray and as far as it is needful do command that every Priest as well Secular as Regular do celebrate one Mass a week and that all Lay-men do fast upon Wednesday Friday and Saturday in one week and thence forward one day a week and upon that Wednesday or Saturday as long as the Ordinary shall please and that they pray heartily unto God for the prosperous success of this our Catholick War for which they shall gain so many days indulgences as every Prelate shall publish in their several Diocesses respectively after the Fast of the aforesaid three days in one Week having first confessed and received the blessed Sacrament and bestowed some Alms to this effect 28. In every Regiment of Souldiers let there be appointed at least two Confessors and one Preacher to be named by the Ordinaries and by the Superiors of the Regulars whose competent maintenance we commend and command to every Colonel in their respective Regiments And to the end that all those Ordinances and Statutes may effectually be put in Execution We will and decree that all Arch-bishops Bishops Apostolical Vicars and Regular Superiours as well here present as absent may be very serious and careful of the Execution of the aforesaid as they tender not to incur displeasure wrath and revenge and herewith we charge their Consciences 29. Moreover VVe pray and require all Noblemen Magistrates and all other Marshal Commanders that with their helps and Secular forces they assist and set forward in Execution the aforesaid Statutes in their several Precincts respectively as often as it shall be needful If in any of the aforesaid Statutes any doubt or difficulty may by chance arise the explication thereof we reserve to the Metropolitans in every Province respectively and to the Bishops in every their Diocesses such of them as are no way contrary to this Cause no other person may presume to expound the aforesaid difficulties Haec dicta acta ordinata statuta subscripta erant nominibus sequentium Praelatorum All those Judgments Sayings Acts and Covenants VVe submit to the Judgment of the See Apostolick Hugo Archiepiscopus Armachanus Thomas Archiepiscopus Casselensis Malachius Archiepiscopus Guamenum David Episcopus Osoren Frater Boetius Episcopus Elphinensis Frater Patricius Episcopus Waterforden Lysmoren Frater Rochus Episcopus Kildaren Johannis Electus Claunfarten Emerus Electus Dunen Conoren Frater Josephus Everard Procurator Archiepiscopi Dublinens Doctor Johannes Creagh Procurator Episcopus Lymeriten David Bourck Willielmus O Connell Procurator Episcopi Imolacen Donatus O Tearnan Procurator Episcopi Laonen Doctor Dionysius Harty Decanus Laonensis Doctor Michael Hacket Vicar gener Waterforden Gulielmus Devocer Vic. gener Fernesen Thomas Roch Vicar Generalis Ossoren Frater Lucas Archer Abbas Sanctae Crucis Frater Anthonius de Rosario Ord. praed Vicar Provincial Robertus Nugent Societat Jesu in Heb. Frater Thadeus Connoldus Ang. pro Provinc Johannes Wareinge Decanus Lymericen Frater Patricius Darcye Guardian Dublin Frater Thomas Strange Guardian Waterford Frater Joseph Lancton Prior Kilkenny Frater Tho. Tearnon Guard de Dundalk Frater Johannes Reyly Guard Kilkenny Frater Boetius Egnanus Guard Buttevant Jordanus Boork Archidiaconus Lymericensis APPENDIX VIII Fol. 98. Orders made and established by the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the rest of the general Assembly for the Kingdom of Ireland met at the City of Kilkenny the 24th day of October Anno Dom. 1642. and in the Eighteenth year of the Reign of our Soveraign Lord the King Charles by the Grace of God King of Great Britain France and Ireland c. 1. IMprimis That the Roman Catholick Church in Ireland shall and may have and enjoy the Priviledges and Immunities according to the great Charter made and declared within the Realm of England in the ninth year of King H. 3. sometime King of England and the Lord of Ireland and afterwards enacted and confirmed in this Realm of Ireland and that the Common Law of England and all the Statutes of force in this Kingdom which are not against the Catholick Roman Religion on the Liberties of the Natives and other Liberties of this Kingdom shall be observed throughout the whole Kingdom and that all Proceedings in Civil and Criminal Cases shall be according to the said Laws 2. Item That all and every person and persons within this Realm shall bear Faith and true Allegiance unto our Soveraign Lord King Charles by the Grace of God King of Great Britain France and Ireland His Heirs and Successors and shall uphold and maintain his and their Rights and lawful Prerogatives with the utmost skill and power of such person or persons against all manner of persons whatsoever 3. Item That the Common Laws of England and Ireland and the said Statutes called the great Charter and every Clause Branch and Article thereof and all other Statutes confirming expounding or declaring the same shall be punctually observed within this Kingdom so far forth as the Condition of the present times during these times can by possibilities give way thereunto and after the War is ended the same to be observed without any Limitation or Restriction whatsoever 4. Inasmuch as the City of Dublin is the usual and principal Seat of Justice in this Kingdom where the Parliament and ordinary Courts were held and some other places where principal Councils were sometimes kept and as yet possessed and commanded by the malignant party who are Enemies to God and their King and his Majesties well-affected Subjects The Assembly is necessitated during this VVar in some formalities and circumstances to deviate from the proceedings prescrib'd by the said Laws and Statutes nevertheless retaineth the substance and Essence thereof so far-forth as the endless malice and cruelty of their Enemies the said malignant party doth permit
of your Subjects by reason of the Court of Wards and respit of Homage be taken away and certain revenue in Lieu thereof setled upon your Majesty without diminution of your Majesties profits Answ. We know of no Oppression by reason of the Court of Wards and we humbly conceive that the Court of Wards is of great use for the raising of your Majesties Revenues the preservation of your Majesties Tenures and chiefly the Education of the Gentry in the Protestant Religion and in Civility and Learning and good Manners who otherwise would be brought up in ignorance and barbarism their Estates be ruined by their Kindred and Friends and continue their depending upon their Chieftains and Lords to the great prejudice of your Majesties service and Protestant Subjects and there being no colour of exception to your Majesties just Title to Wardships we know not why the taking away of your Court concerning the same should be pressed unless it be to prevent the Education of the Lords and Gentry that fall Wards in the Protestant Religion For that part of this Proposition which concerns respit of Homage we humbly conceive that reasonable that some way may be settled for that if that standeth with your Majesties good pleasure without prejudice to your Majesty or your Majesties Protestant Subjects 10. Pro. That no Lord not estated in the Kingdom or estated and not resident shall have Vote in the said Parliament by Proxie or otherwise and none admitted to the House of Commons but such as shall be estated and resident within the Kingdom Answ. We humbly conceive that in the year 1641. by the Graces which your Majesty then granted to your Subjects of Ireland the matter of this Proposition was in a fair way regulated by your utter abolishing of blank Proxies and limiting Lords present and attending in the Parliament of Ireland that no one of them should be capable of more Proxies then two and prescribing the Peers of that Kingdom not there resident to purchase fitting proportions of Land in Ireland within five years from the last of July 1641. or else to loose their Votes till they should make such purchases which purchases by reason of the troubles hapning in the Kingdom and which have continued for two years and a half have not peradventure yet been made and therefore your Majesty may now be pleased and may take just occasion to enlarge that time for five years more from the time when that Kingdom may again be settled in a happy firm peace and as to members of the House of Commons the same is most fit as we humbly conceive to be regulated by the Laws and Statutes of that Kingdom 11. Pro. That an Act be passed in the next Parliament declaratory that the Parliament of Ireland is a free Parliament of it self independant of and not subordinate to the Parliament of England and that the Subjects of Ireland are immediately subject to your Majesty as in right of your revenue and that the Members of the said Parliament of Ireland and all other the Subjects of Ireland are independant and no way to be ordered or concluded by the Parliament of England and are only to be ordered and governed within that Kingdom by your Majesty and such Governours as are or shall be there appointed and by the Parliament of that Kingdom according to the Laws of the Land Answ. This Proposition concerns your Majesties High Court of Parliament both of England and Ireland and is beyond our abilities who are not acquainted with the Records and Presidents of this Nature to give an answer thereunto and therefore we humbly desire your Majesties pardon for not answering unto the same 12. Pro. That the assumed Power or Jurisdiction in the Council-Board of determining all manner of Causes be limited to matters of State and all Patents Estates and Grants illegally and extrajudiciously avoided there or elsewhere be left in state as before and the parties grieved their Heirs or Assigns till legal eviction Answ. The Council-Table hath aways excercised Jursdiction in some cases ever since the English Government was setled in that Kingdom and is of long continuance in cases of some Nature as the beginning thereof appeareth not which seemeth to be by prescription and hath always been armed with Power to examin upon Oath as a Court of Justice or in the nature of a Court of Justice in cases of some natures and may be very necessary still in many cases especially for the present till your Majesties Laws may more generally be received in that Kingdom and we conceive that Board is so well limited by printed Instructions in your Majesties Royal Fathers time and by your Majesties Graces in the seventeenth year of your Reign that it needeth for this present little or no regulating at all howbeit they humbly referr that to your Majesties great wisdom and goodness to do therein as to Law and Justice shall appertain 13. Pro. That the Statutes of the 11th 12th and 13th years of Queen Elizabeth concerning the Staple Commodities be repealed referving to his Majesty lawful and just Poundage and a Book of Rates be setled by an indifferent Committy of both Houses for all Comodities Answ. The matter of this Proposition is settled in a fitting and good way by your Majesty already as we conceive amongst the Graces granted by your Majesty to your people of Ireland in the Seventeenth year of your Majesties Reign to which we humbly referr our selves 14. Pro. That insomuch as the long continuance of the chief Governour or Governours of that Kingdom in that place of so great eminency and power hath been a principall occasion that much Tyranny and Oppression hath been used and exercised upon the Subjects of that Kingdom that your Majesty will be pleased to continue such Governours hereafter but for three years and that none once employed therein be appointed for the same again until the expiration of six years next after the end of the first three years and that an Act pass to disanul such Governour or Governours during their Government directly or indirectly in Use Trust or otherwise to make any manner of Purchase or acquisition of any Mannors Lands Tenements or Hereditaments within that Kingdom other then from your Majesties own Heirs and Successors Answ. We humbly conceive that this Proposition tendeth to lay a false and scandalous aspersion on your Majesties gracious Government over Ireland and that it toucheth very high upon your Wisdom Justice and Power and under colour of supposed Corruptions pretended to be in the greatest Officer that Commandeth under your Majesty there if he continue so long in his Government as may well enable him to find out and discover the true State of the Kingdom and the dangerous disposition and designs of the Popish party there to prevent him therein and to turne him out from doing Service before or as soon as he is throughly informed and experienced how to do the same and then to hold him excluded so long
Oratory is seldom unsuccessful but what the people got by following this thrifty Counsel some have taken the pains to compute and it is found that the Impositions laid and levied upon the people to support Usurpation and Tyrannie in a few bad years came to more than the most chargeable Princes had raised in some Ages to conquer Enemies and Infidels abroad whilest this was employed to make Enemies of Friends and little better than Infidels of Christians at home I confess this Animadversion is not so seasonable now or proper to he applyed to you who in your Liberalities have outgone all Example and prevented even the Kings wishes nor are those Liberalities the less but the more valued by Him that he intends to apply them intirely to the security and improvement of a true Protestant and a right English Interest in this Kingdom There is nothing that declares indeed that constitutes perfect Union and a happy Harmony so much as mutual trusts and confidence and the interchange of gifts and benefits it is so in private Friendship and it is much more so in that good Intelligence which must make a King and His people happy The King has trusted you as far as ever King trusted Subjects and He has given you more than ever any King or Lord of Ireland had to give You have trusted the King with all you had and all you had to pretend to and you have given Him more than he thought of to desire Let it not therefore be apprehended that this Commerce must cease by the Prodigality on both sides as if there were no more to be given or received No my Lords and Gentlemen protection from Forreign Invasion and Rebellion at home the due and uncorrupt administration of Government and of the Laws and under them the advancement and encouragement of Piety and Learning Trade and all sorts of Industry and Improvements are benefits that may to the end of time descend from the Throne to you and yours And a due subjection to that Government and obedience to those Laws and application to that Piety and Learning to that Trade and Industry and to those Improvements may be as lasting Retributions from the People to the Throne I should here end this unusual Exercise but that I am commanded by the King to let you know that as He is abundantly satisfied with those demonstrations of Duty Loyalty and Affection you have given him during the whole time of your sitting so he looks with great Pleasure and Delight upon those Acts of Grace and Bounty that have past from him to you and he commands me to be sure not to forget to assure you upon all Proper Occasions that all his Promises shall be inviolably observed and that he will consent to whatever else may make this Kingdom flourishing and happy whether it shall be the Enacting of new and profitable or the repeal of old unuseful or burthensom Laws To say anything of or from my self in this place may be Presumption but to say nothing to you my Lords and Gentlemen to whom I owe so much must be Ingratitude You have before and since My Arrival been pleased to make many and obliging Expressions of your Approbation of the Kings choice of Me for this Government I have great reason to fear both the King and you consulted your Indulgence to Me more than your judgement of Me. Yet without much Presumption or Vanity I think I may say thus far the King and you may be excusable that He chose and You approved a Person whose Fortune and Family must prosper or decay must Ruine or Subsist by and with this Kingdom This has not perhaps always been the case and it is possible mean Abilities thus stimulated may be more profitable and industrious than greater actuated by less or by contrary Incentives There are upon me all imaginable Obligations to apply all that is in me to the safety and prosperity of this Kingdom Those of duty fidelity and thankfulness to the best and most bountiful Master in the World those of Retribution and Gratitude to you for extraordinary and liberal manifestations of kindness and affection and those self-preservation and Happiness Hence it may be concluded reasonably and naturally that my endeavours will be hearty and faithful and my failings which shall be as few as I can unvoluntarily and therefore the more pardonable You will presently when I am retired be at liberty to adjourn your selves to the time you desired Referrable to fol. 326. A form of Divine Service to be used October 23d appointed by Act of Parliament Anno Regni Car. 2di 14. die 27. Sep. 1662. to be kept and Celebrated as an Anniversary Thanksgiving in this Kingdom of Ireland THe begining of the Service to be according to the Form of the Common-Prayer then proper Psalms as 3. 9. 12. 46. 144. Proper Lessons for the First 2 Chron. 13. or Jer. 30. For the Second Lesson Mat. 9. or Acts 5. or Acts 23. And after the Collect for the Sunday this following Collect. ALmighty God and heavenly Father who out of thy most wise and watchful Providence and tender mercies towards us thine unworthy Servants hast been pleased as at all other times so on this day to prevent the extreme malice michievous imagination and bloody intention of our Enemies by revealing so wonderfully and opportunely their Rebellion and cruel Enterprises plotted against our dread Soveraign Lord the King and the whole State of this Realm for the subversion of this Government and the utter extirpation of the truth of thy Gospel and pure Religion professed amongst us We most humbly praise and magnifie thy glorious name for thine infinite goodness in this our marvellous deliverance We confess it was thy mercy thy mercy alone most merciful Father that we were not consumed And therefore not unto us not unto us O Lord but unto thy name be ascribed all honour and glory in all Churches of the Saints throughout all Generations For thou Lord didest discover unto thy Servants the snares of death thou didst break them and we were delivered Be thou still our mighty Protector and scatter our Enemies that delight in blood infatuate their Councils enfeeble their strength put fear in their hearts and accomplish this thy mercy in our safety and future deliverance And to that end strengthen the hands of our gracious King the Lord Lieutenant the Nobility and Magistrates of the Land with Jugdment Justice and Power to restrain such workers of Iniquity who pretend Religion and practise Rebellion and devout thine Inheritance This Lord we crave at thy merciful hands together with the continuance of thy powerful Protection over our dread Soveraign the whole Church and these Kealms and the speedy Conversion of all our Enemies and that for thy dear Sons sake Jesus Christ our only Mediator and Advocate Amen After the Litany this Prayer for the Second Collect. O Eternal God in whom we live move and have our being and by whom alone
betwixt the Temporal and Ecclesiastical Authority Quaedam percontationes Reverendissimo Domino Nuncio a Clanrichardiae Marchione propositae 1. QUâ potestate vel Authoritate Nuncius Regiae Magistatis subditos à fide sua obedientia Statuto Regni Regnique Ordinibus debitâ abducat 2. Quâ potestate vel Authoritate Tribunos Centuriones creet militemque conscribat Qui nihil in communem hostem molitus Catholicorum Majestatus subditorum castella passim expugnet praedas agat omnia compilat 3. Quâ potestate vel ratione hominibus perjurus faveat eosque contra Rectores universique regni Ordines teneat ac tueatur 4. Quâ potestate manifestos proscriptos perduelles in retinendis ac propagandis validis munitionibus contra eos Qui Regni clavum tenent animet sustentet 5. Quâ potestate Regiae Majestatis obsequium professos Ejusque in hoc regno proinde Praefectis adhoerentes quos potest excommunicatos carceribus mancipet aliosque omnes promiscuè excommunicet To which no Answer that I could ever discover was returned but his Will Or that of Anastasius I will command but not be commanded Fol. 190. l. 49. The Pope Himself But before we proceed to that we shall be so just that wherein the supream Council disowned the Nuntio's Exorbitances Oppressions and Divisions through his Insolency we shall manifest their resentment acquainting you first that the Nuntio disliking the Cessation writes somewhat sharply to the Supream Council inveighing with more then ordinary detestation against the Lord Iuchiquin telling them that it was known through Europe how he had sack'd Cashell slain in St. Patrick's Church with horrible Sacriledge several Priests and Women at the Altar and afterwards compelled many Counties to pay Contribution and at last even before the Walls of Kilkenny insulted over the chief Magistrate To which the Supream Council having replied with much respect and ingenuity they as to this of the Lord Inchiquin told the Nuntio that what he did he did as an Enemy But upon the Cessation the means to induce a Peace Cashell the Cathedral and all the Churches thereabouts would fall into their Hands putting the Nuntio further in mind That when there was but a rumour only of agreeing with the Parliamentary Scots he was forward to encourage them to joyn in that Association That their Treasure was low that Jones had all necessary supplies from the Parliament whilst they lack'd even Corn That the Confederate Commissioners Ferns and Plunket returned from Rome onely with some Reliques but no Money Which working nothing upon the Nuntio who the 27. of May Excommunicated all that adhered to that Cessation the supream Council in their Declaration of the 3d. of June first admonished both seculars and Regulars as all of their Association That they no wise molest any of their respective Subjects Priests or Religious for persevering in their Loyalty or in pursuance thereof for approving the late Cessation made by them with the Lord Baron of Inchiquin Which not prevailing they in persuance of the Oath of Association the 20th of June 1648. enjoyned this Oath to be taken by all the Confedrate Catholicks I A. B. do swear and protest before God and his Saints and Angels that I will to the uttermost of my power observe the Oath of Association maintain the Authority of the Supream Council and the Government established by the general Assembly of the Confederate Catholicks of this Kingdom notwithstanding the present Excommunication issued forth by the Lord Nuncio and four Bishops against the Concluders Maintainers and Adherents thereof and unto the Cessation concluded with the Lord Baron of Inchiquin and notwithstanding any other Excommunication to be issued upon the said Ground against which Excommunication and those who issued it I do appeal unto his Holiness as the indifferent Judge And I do further Swear that to the Hazard of my life I will suppress and oppose any Person or Party that shall stand in Arms in opposition of the said Association So help me God And that their further sence which they seemed to be much satisfied in might be fully known We shall here give you their Prolocutors following Letter who though he joyned with the Confederates we must from our knowledge of his Parts and Affections assure you in his own Nature was not averse to the English interest Concilii Catholicorum Regni Hiberniae Denunciatio ad Nuncium Domine mi PRaeceptum mihi est ab hoc Generali Regni Conventu Dominationi tuae significare varias Oppressiones Divisiones Exorbitantia Crimina Capitales Offensas Quas à Dominatione tua à tribus annis jam penè elapsis in hoc regno commissas hoc ipso Tempore in ineffabile Religionis Catholicae detrimentum Nationisque jam tam Antiquae quam Catholicae ruinam ac Subversionem sedisque Apostolicae dedecus continuatas ac perpetratas faederati Hiberniae Catholici ex sua Officiosa filiali in summum Pontificem reverentiâ nimiâ inauditâ apud ullam Nationem patientiâ hactenùs toleraverunt in hunc usque diem tolerant tandem compulisse haec Generalia Comitia ad valida legitima ejus Presidia recurrere pro conservandis Reliquiis Majorum Regni commodorum jam ad proximum integrae Ruinae punctum actibus tuis pravaque rerum Administratione redactorum Quapropter Dominationem tuam certiorem faciunt Declarationem * ac Protestationem contra te paratam ad suam Sanctitatem brevi mittendam esse cujus argumenti partem aliquam quam tibi placebit notare inclusum scriptum continet ac deinde ad iter Romam versus suscipiendum ibique te contra accusationem illam defendendam quam primùm parare Ac interim Dominatio tua sub interminatione paenarum caeteroqui tam divinarum quam humanarum legum vigore incurrendarum cavebit ne per se aut per ullum aliud Instrumentum directe aut indirectè ullis Regni sese hujus rebus immisceat Maneo Kilkenniae 19. Octobris 1648. Dominationis tuae admodum amicus de mandato Comitiorum Generalium Rich. Blaka Prolocutor But we suspect this Denunciation of theirs was rather delusive then entire for that afterwards we shall finde many of the Members of this Council though it drove the Nuncio out of the Kingdom stomach'd his Majesties Authority seated in his Excellency Fol. 228. l. 46. or allay In answer to whose Revolt it 's said besides what may be drawn from the Munster Remonstrance that those Towns declared with the Lord Inchiquin for the King in hopes that the Marquess would so have adjusted the Differences betwixt them and the Irish that there might have been such a visible power left in Him as to have managed the Government answerable to the Dignities of his Office and the security of the Protestants and their Religion But when they perceiv'd that the first was slighted and the latter not ascertain'd nay in effect at the Confederates mercy they again
confess they had not power to confer any new Authority on their Faculty of destroying being more prevalent than that of preserving Their second Reason was They feared they should lose the few Churches remaining under his Government as they had lost under him all the Churches in the Cities of Waterford Kilkenny Wexford Ross Clonmel Cashel Featherd Kilmallock and the rest in which they said they agreed with the Maccabees Maximus vero primus pro sanctitate timor erat Templi By whose ill Government those Cities were lost appears by what hath been said before and how well the few that were then left were kept after they had forced the Marquis to depart the Kingdom is well known to the World The third Reason they thought fit was Because the Lord Lieutenant had declared at Cork that he would maintain during his life the Protestant Religion according to the example of the best Reformed Churches which might be the same with the Covenant for ought they knew They said They could not expect from him the defence of the Catholick Religion which was a strange objection against a Protestant Lieutenant of a Protestant King under whose Government they pretended to be desirous to live And whatsoever had been declared by the Lord Lieutenant at Cork in that particular before the conclusion of the Treaty of Peace and Published and Printed the 6th of October 1648. and well known to the Bishops who after the same and notwithstanding that Declaration with all demonstrations of cheerfulness gave their consents to that Peace which they now think fit to break because of that Declaration The fourth Reason was cast in the same mould The scandal over the World to make choice of one of a different Religion especially in Rome where his Holiness expected that a Catholick Governour should be placed over them according to his Agreement or Articles as it was reported with the Queen of England which the Marquis knew to be an aspersion and they said They did fear the scourges of the War and the Plague that had faln so heavy upon them were some evidence of Gods anger for putting Gods Cause and the Churches under such an hand whereas that trust might have been managed in a Catholicks hand under the Kings Authority Which Reason indeed had most ingenuity in it and whensoever they digested their malice and their prejudice in those Personal Reproaches and Calumnies which they knew to be most untrue if they had frankly declared and excepted against him for being a Protestant they had more complied with the dictates and integrities of their hearts And yet it might appear a very unskilful and imprudent suggestion to make the humour of the Court of Rome the Rule of obedience to their Sovereign and to discourse of choosing a Person of what Religion they thought fit to be his Vice-gerent as if they not he were to be consulted in it which would administer much cause of jealousie unto a Protestant King and to his Protestant Subjects if it were not well known to them that some of the Catholick Nobility and Gentry of the Nation were Enemies at least seemingly to those resolutions that unhappy part of the Catholick Bishops did broach and propagate which alone have reduced that Nation to the calamities it then and since underwent The fifth Reason that they should find no favour nor countenance but reproach and disgrace from any Catholick Prince Church or Laity while the Marquis Governed when in truth since that time and that their proceedings have been taken notice of the Catholick Princes have looked upon them as incapable of any succour or countenance and have accordingly left them to the rage of their Persecutors Their other Reasons were more Vulgar and too often before recited exceptions to his Person in respect of the ill success of his Conduct and the prejudice the People had to him in regard of the same And the too considerable Corporations remaining which were Limerick and Galway were at so great distance with the Lord Lieutenant that they were resolved to appear as in their intentions and actions they conceiv'd they were faithful to the Crown and obedient to the Kings Authority if placed in another Person To which suggestions nothing need to be added to what hath been said in this Discourse of the demeanor of those particular Places nor can the observation be avoided That it was the natural practice of this Congregation to use all their industry and artifice to infuse jealousie and sedition into the People and distrust and obstinacy into the Corporations and then to urge that jealousie prejudice and indisposition of the People and Corporations to countenance any thing they thought fit to do or oppose They concluded that the event of War being uncertain if the Nation should be reduced to a condition of agreeing with the Enemy the Lord Lieutenant would not be a fit man to agree for the exercise of their Religion for their Churches Altars or any thing concerning the same And therefore they said That the best way that occurred to them in this pressing exigency for the union of the Nation and keeping them from agreeing with the Enemy was That the Marquis of Clanrickard in whom according to the sense of the Congregation at James-town they desired the Kings Authority should be left that he might Govern the Nation with the consent of all Parties and the Kings Authority be taken away from the Lord Lieutenant until an Assembly And to that end that a free and lawful Assembly might be made to sit to judge upon the Peoples preservation and to decree and order what should be best and safest for the defence of the Nation Touching the Kings Authority to be kept over them and the Peace to be asserted and made good or to renew the Association or any thing else they should find best and most expedient and unto that they would willingly submit for they said they never intended to hinder an Assembly or to give Laws to the People all that they endeavour'd was to defend the Altars and Souls entrusted to them And as they were of opinion that the Soldiers would follow the Marquis of Clanrickard and the People obey him so they would contribute their best endeavours to that effect They further gave assurance that if any free and lawful Assembly upon due consideration of their own state and condition should find it the best way for their own safety and preservation to make an Agreement with the Enemy as they intended never by the grace of God to grant away from them by an Affirmative consent to the Churches and Altars if forced from them they were blameless so would they not hinder the People from compounding with the Enemy for the safety of their Lives and Estates when no way of offence was appearing though upon such an Agreement they saw that they alone should probably be losers of Lives States Churches Altars Immunities and Liberties But in such Contracts with the Enemy if any